AEW have denied being disappointed by the offer made by Warner Bros Discovery to retain the rights to AEW programming.
The two companies are locked in exclusive negotiations over AEW’s broadcasting rights. AEW’s deal with WBD is set to run out at the end of the year. They haven’t agreed a new deal to continue airing shows like Dynamite and Collision.
Puck News‘ Matt Belloni previously reported that AEW boss Tony Khan was “disappointed” with the offer made by WBD. Belloni wrote that, with the company losing the rights to broadcast the NBA, Khan expected a bigger offer to retain AEW programming on their network in the future.
They also noted that other networks could swoop in and snap up the broadcasting rights. This is given how well the shows still do on TNT and TBS.
Despite this, AEW sources have denied being disappointed with the offer so far. Dave Meltzer of F4WOnline reported that “AEW sources have told him that the first offer was not disappointing to Tony Khan”. However, he wrote that the two sides have yet to agree a new deal.
Tony Khan has publicly been very positive about continuing the relationship between AEW and WBD. Khan said at the Double or Nothing post-show media scrum that he would “love to stay” with the network, and called their negotiations “great talks”.
“I would absolutely love to stay here as long as they would have us. We’re having great talks with them, and there is an exclusive period, and we’re in it. And I’m very blessed to be having great talks with them in this period. We’ll see what happens.”
