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Netflix’s Gabe Spitzer, Vice President of Global Live Sports and Entertainment, praised the streaming platform's partnership with WWE, particularly regarding the performance of Raw in the United States during a conversation with Richard Deitsch on the Sports Media podcast.
Spitzer said Netflix expected WWE’s established U.S. fanbase to follow Raw to the platform and noted that the show has met the company’s expectations across its key metrics. While the U.S. results have largely followed expectations, Spitzer pointed to international markets as the bigger area of growth for the partnership - Netflix has the rights to Smackdown, NXT and PPVs outside of the United States for most major countries.
Spitzer specifically highlighted Italy, which joined the WWE/Netflix arrangement this year. Following the launch, WWE held the Clash in Italy, wiith Spitzer using that event an example of how Netflix and WWE are working together to build interest in individual markets. According to Spitzer, the companies are discussing which countries have the greatest potential for growth and whether bringing WWE events to those markets can help increase viewership.
Spitzer also discussed efforts to expand WWE talent into other areas of Netflix programming. He said Netflix is regularly meeting with WWE talents to explore opportunities not only within its sports programming, but also across its film and scripted-series divisions. The goal, according to Spitzer, is to create greater crossover between WWE and Netflix, potentially placing WWE talent in Netflix original productions while strengthening fan interest and hopefully, driving additional viewership for both sides of the partnership. CM Punk will be appearing an upcoming Netflix production of Guarding the Stars.
A complete transcript of the WWE-related exchange:
Richard Deitsch: How do you judge success based on your WWE partnership? Like what are—what are the sort of the things that you're looking for from the Netflix end that makes this worth Netflix's while?
Gabe Spitzer: Yeah, we're now in year almost—like almost two years in, but a little over a year and a half, and obviously this was our first big live, I would call live sports entertainment deal. Huge fan for a long time, and, you know, great partners over there with with people like Paul Levesque and Lee Fitting and Nick Khan. They—they've been great partners, and I think we're thrilled with the results so far. We knew in the US, you know, with something like Raw having that every week, there was going to be that passionate, loyal fanbase, and they were going to show up, and they have come, you know, in in expected ways over to Netflix and in predictable ways. So it it's hit, you know, every metric that we've hoped for on the US side. I think the place where we've been surprised in a good way and that will continue to grow is outside of the US. And that that's really where we see the potential to continue to grow this partnership is in the US we have Raw only; outside of the US in 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 and they did a big PLE, the Clash in Italy, there shortly after. So they're working with us, and they're saying, "Hey, what where 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 for a big Raw that we're really excited about. So that's been the cool evolution of the partnership is 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.
Richard Deitsch: Yeah, basically my WWE consumption is through you guys. I am in Toronto right now, so like I get all this stuff in Netflix, so it's been sort of interesting to—to to sort of follow. I realize obviously no partner is going to have involvement in creative, but here's my "but." But are there things that you talk to the WWE about where like standards-wise, like Netflix has like—I don't know, too much blood, too much cursing. Like do you get—do you ever have those conversations with them? Obviously, you're not getting involved with the storyline, you're not like I'm sure, Gabe, you're not telling Paul Levesque what Oba Femi should do, right? But like there are things that like when it comes to Netflix's place in this, I do think you have a corporate like sort of right to say X. Does that happen?
Gabe Spitzer: Not often. You know, obviously there's rating standards that anyone has to adhere to where Netflix, so we try—we try to be a little looser on that. I think the place where we've had conversations with them, like I said, around locations. I also think it's helped us—there's been examples where even with the Rock coming up in a couple weeks, right? It's it's leading to a big Roman Reigns heavyweight championship match after this tournament that they've done. The ability for us to promote three, four weeks out for a big Raw, you know, starting off the year, I think it was Bron Breakker and CM Punk in our first Raw of the year. That's the type of conversations we've had where either it's, "Hey, you potentially go to this city," or "Hey, if there's a big matchup, can you let us know three, four, five weeks in advance so we can start promoting that outside of the PLEs as you normally do, you know, on a Raw?" And they've been very receptive to that.
Richard Deitsch: Are you interested—like, I think Rollins did a great job on that Skyscraper show. Like is that—like have you talked to anyone else within WWE about maybe like some kind of—he's kind of unique because he's a big football fan, right? I think he wants to do this stuff, but are there others in other on-air talents in WWE who you could see being part of Netflix's broader sports coverage?
Gabe Spitzer: Yeah, Seth has been great. We had him, I think, two years now on on NFL. Actually, no, last year was—he was on the Christmas podcast, and we like—well, yeah, not to break news, but yeah, we hope to have him back. He's a big Bears fan, so we hope to have him back this year on Christmas. And like you said, he was great on Skyscraper. So he's awesome. I think we're constantly meeting with other WWE talent to see if there's a fit in the sports space. They've been great partners in in trying to volunteer that talent. And not I would say not just in sports, you know, they're meeting with our film and scripted series teams. How can we cast some of those superstars in some of our shows? Because I think that creates that larger, you know, cohesiveness across Netflix that I think can help lift the WWE, help them and help us in terms of viewership, too, to create more of that fan affinity.
Thanks to Mike Informer for all his help.
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