Netflix Acquires Warner Bros., Making Things Interesting Between WWE & AEW

After months of rumors, Netflix has announced that the company has reached an agreement to acquire Warner Bros. Assuming the deal clears all regulatory concerns, this would likely mean that one company would have the rights to stream both WWE and AEW's flagship shows.

Netflix announced the deal this morning, revealing that they would be acquiring the Warner Bros. movie and television studios, as well as HBO and HBO Max. Meanwhile, the previously-announced split within WBD will move forward as planned, with Netflix only acquiring the Warner Bros. side. Discovery Global will be a separate company, not owned by Netflix, consisting of TV channels like TBS, TNT, and Discovery. According to the press release, Netflix will continue operating HBO Max as-is for the time being, though that will almost surely change down the line.

It's not yet entirely clear how this move could affect AEW programming. The promotion is in the early stage of a multi-year partnership with WBD that they signed late last year. On the surface, that would keep "AEW Dynamite" and "AEW Collision" guaranteed to broadcast for several years to come, though it's unknown if there were any clauses in the contract in the event of a possible sale.

At the start of 2025, "WWE Raw" made the move from traditional cable to Netflix, which is also now the home of several other WWE shows internationally. The company's premium live events stream on Netflix in many countries, while WWE just struck a deal with ESPN several months ago to stream all main roster PLEs on the new ESPN+ app in the United States for the foreseeable future.

One added wrinkle to the story is that WBD was previously reported to own a small stake in AEW. With so much in flux as WBD prepares to split into two before half of it is acquired, it remains to be seen where that piece of ownership ends up.