April 26, 2021 Observer Newsletter: WWE financials, Ben Askren vs. Jake Paul

World Wrestling Entertainment gave a very enthusiastic look at its future on the 4/22 investors conference headed by President Nick Khan, with Chief Brand Officer Stephanie McMahon and Chief Financial Officer Kristina Salen.

Like with the last call, Vince McMahon opened, said a few words and was never heard from again, with Khan impressively handling the questions.

The key with Khan is his knowledge of the sports media industry is so impressive, as he talked about the NHL deal and that he doesn’t believe NBC will get the second half of the package, Amazon Prime and Apple TV being players going forward and how the big players, and he considers WWE a big player, will thrive in this marketplace but that unproven companies will be hurt because the big media companies are spending so much on the big players and there’s only so much money going around.

For example, he said the Southeast Conference was in great shape with its television deal, talked about the NFL getting a 79 percent increase, but even more impressively, the NHL, with ratings down 25 percent, has already doubled its television deal from $200 million to $400 million with ESPN/Disney and still has another package to sell. But he also said that the Big 10 will have challenges.

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