WWE Highlights to air on Freeview in the UK on Channel 5
It has been announced today that Channel 5 (UK) is going to be airing WWE Highlights from 2nd Feb 2020.
BT Sport are the full rights holder for WWE in the UK, however they have agreed for Channel 5 to air highlights of Raw and Smackdown on Saturday and Sunday Mornings and also agreed for Paramount UK to air WWE NXT UK and also for Channel 5 to acquire on demand shows Miz and Mrs, Total Divas and more to air on Pluto TV.
According to Alistair Mcgeorge of Metro
"Starting on 2 February, Channel 5 will air a one-hour version or Raw every Sunday at 10:30am, while a one-hour edition of SmackDown will be available every Saturday in the same time slot. Meanwhile, NXT UK will be screened on Paramount Network each Wednesday from 12am, and the agreement will also see content available through Channel 5’s on streaming service My5"
Read More at
https://metro.co.uk/2020/01/21/wwe-announces-channel-5-highlights-deal-raw-smackdown-coming-free-air-tv-12094717/?ito=cbshare
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| WCW Worldwide on Channel 5 |
This announcement is massive for Wrestling in the UK. For the first time in History WWE Flagship shows Raw and Smackdown will be on Free to air TV. The last time anything close to this happened was in 1999 when Channel 4 acquired WWF (WWE) Heat which Channel 4 (A heavily edited to a magazine type program and not on the level or a Raw or Smackdown) and before that Channel 5 had WCW Worldwide another highlights program of clips throughout the week from Nitro and Thunder shown on a Friday night of WCW sadly this ended when WCW was purchased by WWE in 2001.
On a personal level I'm so very happy to see this. WWE needed a foothold on Freeview TV to reach new viewers and a new audience and this is great for WWE exposure and for the reach of the product as on freeview you can reach everyone in the UK anyone who has a tv in the UK has Freeview.
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| Jack Starz and ilja dragunov WWE NXT UK |
I'm also very Happy for NXT UK - they have so many great UK talents on their show and although the first run won't be until 12am, it has been noted that NXT UK will be on Demand on 5 on Demand so fans could watch this when it is convenient to them and this will help expose all that great UK talent to a new audience too.
This also provides new competition in the Freeview TV realm.
AEW recently signed a deal with ITV to air Dynamite on Free to Air ITV 4 and also on demand. The execution of that deal so far has been poor at best. ITV have not uploaded shows when they advised fans that they would and ITV Wrestling twitter account hasn't tweeted since Dec 5th - it seems the relationship has broken down.
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| WWE Raw Stars The OC (Gallows, Styles, Anderson) |
This could be prime opportunity for the New Channel 5/WWE partnership, as there is a vibrant and passionate audience for Wrestling an audience ITV quite frankly have really angered and that is an audience that Channel 5 can look to catch the attention of, as long as Channel 5 deliver what they say every week.
This is nothing but positive and a great business move by all involved BT Sport make money from the rights, Channel 5 have content for their channel and WWE get more exposure to a wider audience.
My advice to Channel 5 - Don't do anything ITV have done, learn from their mistakes and instead be consistent and give the fans what they are expecting and you'll have a winner on your hands.
Thanks for Reading
@jon422002
Jonathan Orchard
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