AEW and Warner Bros. Discovery Ink New Rights Deal, Including Pay-Per-View Events on Max

Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max is getting into the pay-per-view business.

The streaming service will enter the space as part of a wide-ranging rights deal with the wrestling promotion AEW, which the companies announced Wednesday afternoon.

The new deal will see live episodes of AEW Dynamite continue to run on TBS Wednesday nights, and episodes of AEW Collision continue to run on TNT Saturday nights, but the shows will also simulcast live on the Max streaming service beginning in January, joining live programming from CNN and TNT Sports on the platform.

Beginning later in 2025, Max will begin to offer AEW pay-per-view events at a “discounted price,” with specific details to be determined as the company builds out the tech necessary to offer PPVs.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, AEW founder, CEO, general manager and head of creative Tony Khan said that Wednesday was the “biggest day in AEW’s history,” thanks to the new deal, and the five-year anniversary of the promotion’s launch. He added that tonight’s episode of Dynamite will include a celebration of the new deal.

“What a perfect time to make this announcement about our future,” he added.

Warner Bros. Discovery CEO of U.S. Networks Kathleen Finch praised AEW’s youthful audience, which skews 18-49, as a key driver of the deal. “Nobody can deliver an audience the way AEW can,” she said in an interview.

“The benefit now to WBD is to introduce this terrific event to a streaming audience, the Max audience, which may not have been exposed to AEW in any great way until now, starting in January, is going to have it every Wednesday and and Saturday nights, as well as the library available to stream,” Finch added. “So we are really excited about the growth opportunity and the excitement opportunity that the fandom can bring once we’ve got a new platform to expose AEW to.”

As for the PPV element, Finch noted that with the tech still being developed, a specific launch is still to be determined, but that it will “open up a lot of exciting possibilities for the fans and for the Max platform as well.”

“It’s a really exciting opportunity for us and to be trailblazers on such a massive platform. It’s really exciting for AEW to be the ones that get this opportunity,” Khan added. “I think there’s so much great content on the platform, and I think we can bring something new to the greatest library of film and television in the world.”

AEW launched in 2019 as a rival wrestling promotion to the dominant WWE. Khan, the son of Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shahid Khan, has essentially built the AEW brand in partnership with TNT and TBS, which have given it national distribution and an audience.

“I could not ask for better bosses than Kathleen and [WBD CEO] David Zaslav,” Khan said, noting that they invited him to attend the 2024 Paris Olympics with them and their families. “They’ve been so supportive of AEW from the time that Discovery and Warner Brothers came together to form Warner Bros. Discovery, I’ve gotten so much love and support from this team.”

“What he has done in five years is so miraculous that I think we sometimes lose sight of that,” Finch added. “It’s the five year anniversary tonight of something that should actually be 10 or 15 years old given all the growth that it’s had.”