Eric Bischoff’s opinion in the pro wrestling world holds weight as he is very knowledgeable about a lot of things. This includes the business aspect of the industry, which he is well versed in. He also talked about how much it takes to produce an episode of AEW Dynamite.
The recent merger between WarnerMedia and Discovery has been seen as a huge thing for a variety of reasons. So far, WarnerMedia has been quite satisfied with AEW’s performance on TNT and TBS.
While speaking on an AdFreeShows.com exclusive episode of Strictly Business, Eric Bischoff talked about the aforementioned merger. Bischoff also stated that he believes Tony Khan spends less than $1 million on each episode of AEW Dynamite.
“My guess is the cost of producing that show when they’re having to travel and doing it live, I would be shocked if they were able to produce that show for less than $450,000 an episode. That doesn’t include talent, I’m talking about producing the show. There’s half that $865,000 a week, now you’ve got to throw talent on top of that, now you’ve got to throw travel on top of that, now you’ve got to throw a lot of things on top of that.
So it’s hard to say whether AEW is profitable or not. I don’t know, in terms of how does TBS look at Dynamite? That all depends on how well they’re doing with their advertising. Are they getting premium ad dollars or are they getting mid-tier ad dollars? Are they getting opportunistic buys? So since none of us know that, AEW could be overdelivering to TBS on those expectations or they could be underdelivering.
What are they getting for that prime-time real estate? Are they getting premium ad dollars like they would if they had a beautiful home on it, or are they just getting by because they’ve got a mobile home on a beautiful piece of property? It’s the ad dollars that AEW is generating that is going to become one of, not the determining factor. Nobody that’s watching that show, that’s writing about it, talking about it, has any f***ing clue what those numbers are. Therein lies one of the key factors in what happens to AEW.”
The relationship between AEW and WarnerMedia has been very positive so far. This is why even Matt Hardy isn’t concerned about the merger and that is likely for the best.
h/t to Wrestling Inc for the quotes
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