During the latest episode of his “Strictly Business” podcast, Eric Bischoff addressed a recent report which revealed that Warner Bros. Discovery is supportive of AEW expanding its PPV schedule as negotiations for a TV rights extension continue.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
Commenting on WBD’s encouragement for AEW to expand its PPV schedule, Bischoff questioned the reasoning behind it, stating: “My first thought is, why? Why would Warner Discovery… encourage AEW to produce more pay-per-views? I guess it’s because Warner Discovery owns a piece. And they see the revenue and they want a share of it. I’m guessing they do right now, you don’t hear a lot of that chatter. That’s cool. But I’m guessing that Warner Discovery probably owns a piece of AEW, that’s part of their overall deal. And as such, sees revenue potential there that is readily available and they want at it… And if that’s the case, then I’m more convinced than ever that Warner Discovery owns a piece of AEW as we speak and are looking for revenue upside. That’s the only thing that makes sense. Otherwise, why would they care?”
Expressing his belief that Warner Bros. Discovery has ownership equity in AEW, Bischoff confidently stated: “I’m absolutely convinced because otherwise it wouldn’t make any difference. Why would they care? If they’re not getting a piece of the action, all they care about is television ratings. Since they’re looking for content other than television, there’s no other reason why they’d be interested unless they’re getting a taste.”
When asked whether AEW grew too fast, Bischoff responded: “No. I don’t think that they’ve grown too quickly. I mean look, somebody’s providing you an — how could the Wembley show have any negative impact? You can’t, right? I mean, that’s a big opportunity. It’s a massively successful opportunity in terms of branding AEW and making it credible and viable. So, whatever they had to do to get there was worth it, right? The squeeze was definitely worth the juice, or the juice was worth their squeeze or however you wanna talk about it. Now in terms of producing more television? Look, if the network wants it, your job is to — in any business you’re in, you’re servicing a client. Doesn’t matter. You’ve gotta keep your client happy. And in this case, AEW is servicing Warner Discovery. If Warner Discovery wants something, your job if you’re a good producer, is to deliver it. And deliver it well enough that they want more of it, or willing to pay for more of it, or pay more for the stuff they already have. So you can’t be critical of that.”
Reflecting on the pressure to produce content and service the network’s demands, Bischoff shared his insights, emphasizing: “My — and it’s not criticism, it’s more of a, just an awareness and a little bit of experience is, until you have your process, your creative strategies, your creative process, and you’ve got a great handle on your talent. Until you mature in those areas, and AEW is far from that yet although I’m seeing indications that suggest to me that they, perhaps they’re getting more mature. And they’re starting to figure things out from a television production point of view in a storytelling point of view, more on a television production than storytelling. But there’ll come a time when they’ll get there. The risk, when there’s all of that pressure on you to produce that content to service your client, as you’re putting a tremendous amount of pressure on the infrastructure that provides creative and process, that’s the downside. But I don’t think, it’s not an either or. It has to be both. When your network says, ‘Hey, I want more, and here’s some money!’ That just puts the pressure on the process and on the creative to ramp it up better and faster.”
