AEW
All Elite Wrestling to Sky Sports in The UK?
All Elite Wrestling airs in the UK on ITV 4 on a Friday night and ITV Hub (Itv on demand service should be uploaded on a Thursday) ITV don't air AEW Dynamite live and a separate subscription has to be purchased via Fite.TV if fans wish to do this.
Initially things started off OK although @itvwrestling had difficulties getting Dynamite on ITV Hub on time (they promised Thursdays at 7pm) usually this was up on a Friday morning.
However as the weeks went on the uploading to ITV hub did not get any better and as of this writing its as worse as it has ever been they don't upload the episodes consistently which is leaving many fans frustrated and ITV Wrestling haven't been communicating with fans.
@ITV Wrestling haven't tweeted about AEW since Dec 5th - they haven't updated any of their graphics since Full Gear and ITV wrestling now seem totally disconnected from the fans and from my perspective they just don't seem to care.
ITV used to air Commercials for AEW on ITV 4 and they used to be on during other sporting events - I haven't seen any of these air since November 2019.
Its a shame because AEW are trying to do something new and need the support of their broadcast partners to elevate their product and reach new fans.
Sky Sports recently lost the rights to broadcast WWE in the UK, after being a partner with WWE for 30 years. WWE changed their PPV model and instead of PPV's being purchased via Sky Sports Box Office by fans, WWE were encouraging fans to buy WWE Network for £9.99 a month with PPV's included which then made Sky Box Office PPV model redundant and Sky Sports making less money.
Now with WWE with BT Sport, there is an open spot for a Wrestling TV show on Sky Sports. Sky Sports have 25 years of experience broadcasting WWE Raw live on their which is something AEW can't do currently on ITV due to ITV being a terrestrial TV channel.
In addition AEW PPV fits right in with Sky Sports as these could be aired via Sky Sports Box Office and would be a model that would both benefit AEW and Sky Sports. AEW would make money from these PPV's as would Sky Sports this would be a win-win for both companies.
AEW have also just announced a new deal with TNT until 2023. Included in that is a 3rd TV show to go along with AEW Dynamite and AEW Dark. If this package was offered to Sky Sports it would make AEW more attractive to them, with more content and possibly 3 shows to air,Sky Sports could then have replays of these shows (i.e Child friendly on a Saturday morning) and also Sky could produced their own programming around it (i.e a AEW Talk show or Preview Show with Guests etc).
A Sky Sports Partnership with AEW could be beneficial for both and with ITV seemingly looking like they have given up on AEW - a new partner with the experience and enthusiasm of Sky Sports could make a much better, cohesive and consistent viewing experience for fans.
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@jon422002
Jonathan Orchard
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