Netflix CCO Bela Bajaria Explains Shared Mindset With WWE

Netflix and World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) signed a massive ten-year, $5 billion agreement in January 2024, it signaled the streaming platform’s first major foray into rights agreements with professional sports or sports entertainment. Netflix Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria said at the time that the partnership between the two entities would create tremendous value for both their audiences.

With a reported 4.9 million global viewers tuning in for the debut of Monday Night Raw on Netflix in January—2.6 million of whom were in the United States—the show has consistently ranked among the platform’s most-watched programs each week. Bajaria, along with WWE Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque, spoke at the annual MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference on Friday to explain why WWE was the ideal choice for Netflix’s first full-time rights agreement.

“I think we have a very similar mindset or goals,” Bajaria said. “Entertaining a large audience, a big fan base, multi-generational. Knowing that it’s about entertainment first.”

WWE has seen a massive rise in revenue, ticket sales, merchandise sales, and viewership over the past several years, particularly following the COVID-19 pandemic. Since taking over as WWE’s Chief Content Officer in 2022, Levesque has transformed the organization into a global brand, with more WWE events now taking place overseas. This made Netflix with its worldwide distribution, a perfect fit for WWE.

“Normally, we would do non-televised live events, maybe one or two television shows from there (overseas),” Levesque said. “Right now, we’re going three weeks back-to-back of live events, non-televised. But also, each week, Raw and SmackDown are coming from international markets and markets that we wouldn’t necessarily go to.”

Levesque noted that the partnership with Netflix has helped WWE identify the most important markets for its brand, allowing for greater international expansion than ever before.

“WWE has characters that people love. You’re invested in it,” Bajaria said. “You also surprise them and bring new guests in, or there’s a really surprising storyline. So I just think we’re so like-minded in the goal and ambition—honestly, of entertaining the world.”

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