Netflix to take over WWE's India rights from April 2025 for $5 billion

Netflix is set to take over WWE's India rights from April 2025 for the next 10 years for a record estimated price of $5 billion. While these are the rights for just the streaming platform, the TV rights are likely to be retained by the Sony Pictures Network India. Raw, NXT, Smackdown, and all PLEs will be streaming live on Netflix in India in the upcoming years.

A report emerged claiming the massive shift. It claimed that the TV rights would still be retained by the SPNI. The main reason behind the streaming shift was that the streaming platform did not perform well in the last 3-4 years. Netflix is expected to provide better streaming quality for Indian WWE fans.

"SPNI has been keen to retain TV rights despite the global Netflix deal, according to people familiar with the matter, as the property didn’t perform well on the digital platform during the ongoing rights cycle. However, Netflix is determined to maintain exclusivity in the Indian market, they said," the report stated.

Partnership between WWE and India

SPNI held a contract for 5 years from 2020 to 2024 for a price of $180-210 million. The latest deal for streaming is estimated to be around a huge sum of $5 billion for the next 10 years. This will be the highest online streaming selling rights for WWE in India by a mile. 

The report claimed that the Netflix India Spokesperson confirmed the shift in the streaming platform from 2025. On the other hand, SPNI did not wish to comment on anything in this regard. "Netflix India spokesperson confirmed that WWE content would be available on the platform starting in 2025," added the report.

"However, SPNI declined to comment on the matter," the report concluded. The relationship between India and WWE has been well-established for a long time. In 2002, Sony Network partnered with WWE for TV rights. In 2016, SPNI took over the streaming and TV rights from Zee Entertainment for a huge sum of $385 million.