AEW's Jeff Jarrett Assesses Streaming's Place In Wrestling Industry

Content streaming in pro wrestling is an excellent accompaniment to television broadcasts, with YouTube being the most accessible platform, while there are also promotion-specific services such as ROH Honor Club, NJPW World, TNA+, and WWE Network during its existence. 

Not every promotion can hammer out a deal like WWE has with Netflix, for the streaming service to carry their broadcasts starting next month. WWE will receive $500 million per year for "WWE Raw" to stream on Netflix as part of their agreement. Independent promotions do not get the luxury of a TV contract and must rely on streaming alone for their broadcasts, and Jeff Jarrett, who knows a thing or two about running a promotion, discussed on his "My World" promotion if a promotion can survive solely with show streaming.

"GCW, I think, is surviving. They've got their [TrillerTV] deal. I mean, everything is relative; absolutely on the independent level," Jarrett said. "If you're just on a streaming platform in 2024, transition 2025, no, I don't think you can because I don't think the streaming platform will pay you enough."

Jarrett further added that promotions have to depend on a mix of streaming, cable, and network TV, opining that there's no magic formula for it.

"I had a conversation either last week or the week before with a super high-level cable executive ... we kinda talked about network TV, cable TV, and streaming, and I don't think there's any perfect recipe, but you kinda look right now at last week's synopsis about the ad spending on cable advertising, even post-election, still pretty damn healthy," Jarrett continued. "Network, cable, and streaming are all gonna level out on some level."

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "My World" with a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.