WWE & News Corporation Form Television and Movie Tag Team

Two separate but related business dealings made news today that will have a major impact on the professional wrestling business. Variety.com reports that the WWE and 20th Century Fox (owned by News Corporation) have agreed to a first-look deal that gives the studio distribution rights to movies made by WWE Films.

However, that news isn't the big story of the day. The WWE announced that starting next season, SmackDown will be telecast on MyNetwork TV (owned by News Corporation). Terms of the deal weren't announced. It also wasn't announced whether or not the show would stay on Friday or would be moved to another night.

The impact of these deals will be felt by many companies both inside and outside of the wrestling business. As of now, here is a breakdown of the winners and the losers in these deals.

The Winners

• WWE
  The WWE walks away today as a winner. They now have a distributor for their movies and a network that wants them. As the flagship program for the network, I would expect News Corporation to spend a lot of money advertising the program to let people know that their network exists. I would also expect that they would move the show to Thursday nights, the most popular night for TV.

• News Corporation
  A look back at News Corporation's annual statement shows that they are continually apologizing for the poor performance of the network. After several failed attempts to make the network popular, they finally have a winning commodity. The WWE has helped build the USA Network, Spike TV, and UPN. I would expect more of the same.

• The Fans
  A potential move to Thursday night is a blessing for the fan base of the WWE that would rather spend a Friday night outside of the house instead of sitting in front of their TV sets. The network can show HD programs and has roughly the same clearance at the CW Network.

The Losers

Tribune Broadcasting
It was rumored that Superstation WGN was also in talks to broadcast the show. By losing out on the show, it is hard to see the channel expanding into new markets.

TNA Wrestling
Currently, TNA:iMPACT! is shown on Thursday nights. If the WWE gets a Thursday night timeslot, I would expect that they would have to move their show because they would get decimated by SmackDown. A move off of Thursday nights is a step backwards for the company. What makes this a tougher pill for TNA to swallow is the fact that they were reportedly flirting with the idea of broadcasting TNA:iMPACT! live.

Spike TV
Spike TV had carved out a nice little niche on Thursday nights with TNA programming. That niche appears to be in major jeopardy.

_{Photo: (c) 2008 World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. Friday Night SmackDown can be seen on the CW Network for a few more months.}