ESPN President on WWE: “There is a full appreciation at ESPN of how compelling their content is”

While speaking to Richard Deitsch on the Sports Media podcast, ESPN President of Content Burke Magnus was asked about ESPN’s plans to incorporate WWE programming as part of the new partnership and if SportsCenter will cover WWE storylines…

“It’s a really active conversation. What we’re seeing today is launch-oriented. We’ve had superstars on our shows. Triple H has been on a variety of shows. Everything, though, has been presented in the context of the new partnership and Wrestlepalooza. When it flips from being (less) about the awareness of the new rights agreements and new partnership, how do we handle coverage of the WWE across our platforms? That is a really active conversation right now.

My gut here is that there will be coverage, but we’re figuring out what that looks like in the context of WWE. It’s unequivocally entertainment and part of sports and athletic and what we do in every way, other than the storylines are scripted, and it’s presented that way and everybody knows that. There is a full appreciation at ESPN of how compelling their content is from an entertainment perspective. The answer is ‘Yes, for sure,’ but I’m not really prepared right now to tell you or give you examples of what that might look like.” (quote courtesy of Jeremy Lambert)