Peacock may be going out on its back.

With the WWEs premium live events (like WrestleMania, Royal Rumble and SummerSlam) ditching Peacock in favor of the upcoming new ESPN app and in favor of $325 million annually vs. $180 million the NBCUniversal streaming service has lost a(nother) major subscription-selling and churn-reducing property. NBCU had already taken a chair shot to its WWE rights when Netflix took over the license to Monday Night Raw, which has made the streamers top 10 U.S. shows list every week now for eight months straight. Along with its Raw deal (more like a lowercase raw deal for Peacock, am I right?), Netflix acquired the international rights for WWEs PLEs (still sometimes colloquially referred to as pay-per-views, regardless of their distribution method); Peacock and ESPN are U.S.-only apps. All told, Netflix is paying WWE parent TKO $5 billion over a 10-year period.

Peacock still has SmackDown, sort of. The secondary weekly episodic WWE show airs live on USA Network and then becomes available on-demand the next day on Peacock. USA is in the midst of moving from NBCU to Versant along with most of the cable portfolio (minus Bravo), so the longterm future of that feeder system is TBD. SmackDown was already a downgrade from Raw, which aired on USA forever (including for the recent period when Fox had SmackDown).

WWEs PLEs having varying levels of importance to the brand, to fans, and to streaming subscriptions. WrestleMania, pro-wrestlings Super Bowl, so to speak, directly generates signups on about the same level as a new Saturday Night Live or Love Island USA season see the chart below while the other dozen or so premium events (including NXT PPVs), spaced out evenly throughout the year, are there to disincentivize churn.

In June 2025, the streaming-research company Antenna estimated Peacocks monthly churn rate to be six percent, which is tied with Apple TV+ and Max and lower (thats good here) than Starz, but higher (bad) than Netflix (the industry leader), Disney+, Hulu, Paramount+, Discovery+, and the overall weighted category average.

Antennas Peacock Daily Signups 6/24-6/25 Courtesy of Antenna Under the terms of the new deal, ESPN gets the 10 main WWE PLEs (WrestleMania and SummerSlam are two nights apiece) at the aforementioned rate of $325 million/year, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. Its a hell of a raise for WWE, which was getting $180 million annually from Peacock a number that included all of the storied leagues archives.

WWE has an immense, devoted, and passionate fanbase that were excited to super-serve on our new ESPN DTC platform, ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro said in announcing the new deal. This agreement, which features the most-significant WWE events of the year, bolsters our unprecedented content portfolio and helps drive our streaming future.

The vast WWE library (which includes the new NXT events) does not yet have a home beyond March 2026, a source tells THR. Though ESPN or Netflix make the most sense as potential destinations, at this point, anything is on the table (ladders, and chairs).

It will take a while to know just how bad of a bump this ESPN/WWE deal is to Peacock. Peacock was already struggling in its most-recently reported quarter, Peacock failed to grow from its previously established 41 million paid subscribers. And though it has slowly trimmed its losses, the streamer is also yet to turn a profit.

But Peacock may not be completely plucked here. In October, the NBA is coming, which could bring in (and keep, through May at least) a whole new audience. The splashy deal will bring 99 regular-season games to NBC and Peacock, plus NBA playoff games, the Conference Finals, and the NBA All-Star game; about half of those will be Peacock exclusives on Monday nights. Glass half empty: any cost savings from not re-upping WWE PLEs will be more than offset by the checks NBCU/Peacock are cutting to Adam Silver at the NBA.

Half full: Peacock also still has Sunday Night Football, TVs top show, during the NFL season. Only one game, a TBD Week 17 matchup, will be exclusive to the platform, however and for all of the other games, NBC can still technically be available for free for anybody who wants to put an antenna on their roof.

Until then, the random Week 17 NFL game will prove to be a downgrade from Peacocks exclusive Week 1 game last season the leagues first-ever regular-season game in South America which itself was a downgrade from its own preceding seasons exclusive NFL Wild Card Weekend game. That exclusive playoff game in early 2024 was controversial among NFL fans, but nobody could deny its positive effect on Peacock subscriptions and retention and even just on internet usage in general.

If Peacock can just hang on for the 2028 L.A. Summer Olympics

Elsa/Getty Images The new ESPN app, which is really just a massive overhaul of the existing one, launches on Aug. 21 at $29.99 per month. The WWE premium live events will have to wait until 2026.

Just a few years ago as a standalone streamer, WWE Network cost $9.99 per month; Peacock plans start at $7.99/month and go up to $16.99/month.