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While MLW President Court Bauer has indicated that the promotion has signed a new broadcast deal, PWInsider.com has learned that the new deal has not prevented the company from additional discussions, including talks with a very big potential partner.
PWInsider.com has confirmed with several sources that MLW has recently been in discussions with Discovery, who had a short relationship with Impact Wrestling a few years ago when that company aired on Destination America. With Discovery's launch of their new streaming service Discovery+ (which is an EXCELLENT service) at the onset of 2021, they have been very aggressive and hungry at acquiring new content, including a number of ViceTV properties such as Dark Side of the Ring.
If MLW can lock in a deal there, it's a huge block of cable networks as well as the streaming service that MLW-related programming could sit upon as the Discovery flagship network and Investigation Discovery hit in the area of 96 million homes. Discovery also owns DSports, which internationally has a strong footprint in a number of countries as a sports network.
Discovery was among the entities that had discussions with WWE last year when the company was exploring the future of the WWE Network. They broadcast Impact Wrestling on Destination America for about a year, but when relations between the sides soured, Discovery added Ring of Honor to the network on the same night, which only diluted Impact's audience. When Impact did not hit a contractually required number that would have triggered an additional two years on Discovery, they exited the network. Destination America is said to be slated for a massive rebranding, so it would not appear that would be landing point for MLW, should they lock in a deal with Discovery.
MLW's strategy over the last year has been to sell programming rights to as many streaming and cable outlets as possible in both English and Spanish language format to enhance the number of rights fees revenue company in. We are told that their current deals with DAZN and BeIn Sport would remain regardless of additional new deals (which could even include the creation and production of additional MLW shows beyond Fusion, possibly something Azteca Underground-relate) and that these recent talks with Discovery are not related to Bauer's recent tease of a new deal being locked in. MLW is represented by ICM Partners.
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