When Does Ring of Honor’s Contract w/ Destination America Expire? More Details on Negotiations, When They Knew & How It All Affects TNA

ring of honorSource: The Wrestling Observer Newsletter

While the announcement that Destination America had acquired broadcasting rights for Ring of Honor shook the wrestling world today, taking nearly everyone by surprise, both parties have been negotiating terms for several weeks. Dave Meltzer noted that the decision to begin airing ROH was made prior to the company sending out the alleged memo about the cancellation of Impact Wrestling, although a deal was not completely finalized until this past week. 

Destination America will be giving ROH a try-out on their network, as the syndication deal only lasts until December 2nd. For now, running them together with Impact gives them both a chance to develop strong viewership, and if the experiment works it’s possible they could change their minds on cutting TNA altogether. 

As we have reported, the decision to continue airing Impact Wrestling comes down to money, as does everything in the TV industry. Pro wrestling is expensive to run, and there are many lucrative advertisers that refuse to run their ads during pro wrestling content. So what ROH offers Destination America is a much less expensive alternative. They may not reach exactly the ratings TNA has, but the cost difference makes that largely irrelevant.

The best case scenario is that people tuning in for ROH stay for Impact, or the people tuning in for Impact stay for the re-run of ROH after. Wrestling fans tuning in for one are much more likely to stay for another wrestling program; it’s not like running COPS or Bar Rescue on Spike TV and hoping some of those viewers stick around to watch a wrestling show.

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