In the world of sports media, Nick Khan has become a Scott Boras-type figure. At the Creative Artists Agency, he wielded power across the industry and negotiated impressive deals, ranging from Mike Greenberg’s $ 6.5 million salary to being one of the negotiators at the heart of the billion dollar contracts, like the SEC deal with Disney / ABC / ESPN.
In August last year, he left the agent’s game to become the president and chief revenue officer of WWE, where he is still negotiating with the media.
On Monday, he and NBC announced the WWE Network and award-winning events, such as WrestleMania, that will be transferred to the Peacock streaming service for more than $ 1 billion in five years, as The Wall Street Journal first reported turn.
As one of Khan’s skills is to spot trends and take advantage of them before others do, the Post caught up with him to see what he predicts will come next in the sports media.
With the NFL, Khan believes that Amazon could end “Thursday Night Football” while existing networks (Fox and CBS on Sunday afternoons, NBC on Sunday nights and ESPN on Mondays) keep their current TV packages.
“It looks like it will be the first time that a digital player will receive an entire season package exclusively,” said Khan. “This is how it looks like it is happening, but we will all see it.”
As for broadcasters, Khan thinks that where the sports media is on the rise it will hugely favor top people, while those in the middle will be reduced.
“The Wojs of the world, the Schefter’s of the World, Kirk Herbstreit, these guys will be more than great,” said Khan, mentioning three of CAA’s main clients. “The fourth NBA news, I’m not sure how it will look.”
He believes that the same axiom applies to leagues – you don’t want to be an intermediary.
“The top layer will continue to be tremendously successful,” said Khan. “The lower level of sports rights will also succeed at that level because people need content. The middle tier is the one who should be concerned. If you saw the recent leadership change announced at the Pac-12 Conference, it is because the SEC and the Big Ten beat them in terms of media dollars.
“It will be great, as you know, for the NFL with its negotiations, which we hope to conclude soon. They will have no problems. I think it will be great for the NHL because it is an established product that seems to resonate, but for the middle tier, I think it will be a difficult time. “
Khan’s focus now, of course, is on WWE. With the Peacock business, he thinks he got the right combination. Khan likes the reach of Peacock, which is in about 25 million cable homes Comcast and Cox, and has 26 million direct payment subscribers.
A challenge for direct consumer products, such as the WWE Network, may be to attract new potential customers in an isolated environment. WWE programming is on Fox and the USA Network during the week, but there may now be more people experimenting with your product than before.
“As you said, if it’s only on the WWE Network and you’re not a fan yet, why would you subscribe?” Khan said. “It gives a chance to win people over when it’s right in front of them and the hope is that there will be a drip effect for Raw and SmackDown and, ultimately, for ticket sales, when it happens again, merchandising, etc.”