During an AdFreeShows.com exclusive episode of Strictly Business, Eric Bischoff talked about whether or not David Zaslav (President and CEO of Discovery) will keep AEW when they merge with WarnerMedia.
Bischoff also gave an estimate of what he believes it costs Tony Khan to produce a single episode of Dynamite.
“My guess is the cost of producing that show when they’re having to travel and doing it live, I would be shocked if they were able to produce that show for less than $450,000 an episode,” Bischoff said. “That doesn’t include talent, I’m talking about producing the show. There’s half that $865,000 a week, now you’ve got to throw talent on top of that, now you’ve got to throw travel on top of that, now you’ve got to throw a lot of things on top of that.
“So it’s hard to say whether AEW is profitable or not. I don’t know, in terms of how does TBS look at Dynamite? That all depends on how well they’re doing with their advertising. Are they getting premium ad dollars or are they getting mid-tier ad dollars? Are they getting opportunistic buys? So since none of us know that, AEW could be overdelivering to TBS on those expectations or they could be underdelivering.
“What are they getting for that prime-time real estate? Are they getting premium ad dollars like they would if they had a beautiful home on it, or are they just getting by because they’ve got a mobile home on a beautiful piece of property? It’s the ad dollars that AEW is generating that is going to become one of, not the determining factor. Nobody that’s watching that show, that’s writing about it, talking about it, has any f***ing clue what those numbers are. Therein lies one of the key factors in what happens to AEW.”
