Netflix executive says the company is “thrilled” with WWE partnership results so far
Gabe Spitzer, Vice President of Global Live Sports and Entertainment at Netflix, spoke with Richard Deitsch on the Sports Media with Richard Deitsch podcast and was asked how the partnership with WWE is going. Here was his response…
“We’re now in—you’re almost like almost two years in, but a little over a year and a half—and obviously, this was our first big live, I’d call live sports entertainment deal.
I’ve been a fan for a long time and great partners over there with people like Paul Levesque [Triple H] and Lee Fitting and Nick Khan. They’ve been great partners, and I think we’re thrilled with the results so far.
We knew in the U.S., you know, something like RAW, having that every week, there’s going to be that passionate, loyal fan base, and they are going to show up, and they have come, in expected ways over to Netflix and predictable way.
It’s hit, you know, every metric that we’ve hoped for on the U.S. side. I think the place where we’ve been surprised in a good way, and that will continue to grow, is outside of the U.S. And that’s really where we see the potential to continue to grow.
This partnership is in the U.S. We have RAW only outside of the U.S. and, in most countries around the world, we’re the home for all of WWE.
So that’s RAW, that’s SmackDown, that’s NXT, and that’s the big, you know, premium live events every month, be it WrestleMania, Royal Rumble or SummerSlam.
And it’s been cool to see as different countries have come online. As an example, Italy this year came online and they did a big PLE, the Clash in Italy, shortly after.
So they’re working with us and they’re saying, ‘Hey, like, what are the countries you want to continue to grow? Or how can we boost that viewership? Or can we bring an event there?’
They’re going back to Australia this year. They’ve been to Europe a bunch of times. They’re going down to Mexico in just a couple weeks for a big RAW that we’re really excited about.
So that’s been the cool evolution of the partnership. It’s beyond just those predictable, loyal, passionate viewers—and there are a lot of them—to see how we can potentially bring new fans in around the world, too.”