With AEW finding a home on ITV 4 and ITV Hub, The WWE have signed a deal with Paramount Network company which includes airing NXT UK on channel 5. NXT UK will air every Wednesday at 12AM on channel 5’s streaming service MY5. On top of this Channel 5 will also be showing one hour edited versions of the two WWE flagship shows, RAW starting from Sunday 2nd Feb airing at 10:30am and Smackdown starts Saturday 8th Feb also airing at 10:30am. This is first time WWE programming will be on free terrestrial television in the UK since 2002 when channel 4 used to air episodes of Sunday Night Heat.
This comes hot of the heels of the BT sports deals which will see WWE programmes moving over to them from SKY sports, ending a 30 year arrangement. BT sports will be airing RAW every Tuesday at 1:00am and Smackdown every Saturday at 1:00am. On top of this, the US NXT brand will be airing Thursdays at 1:00am.
Opinion
This is amazing. It will be great to be able to watch WWE content without having a subscription to either a sporting channel or the WWE Network. I honestly saw this coming. Since AEW signed a great deal with ITV 4 as well as ITV on Demand, they have been completely unchallenged by WWE. I had been hoping WWE would bring NXT UK to British TV, as I think it would great counter programme to AEW’s Dynamite. Overall, in my opinion NXT UK is a week to week must watch, to see the very best of British and European Talent, but only being available on the WWE Network has affected the amount of people who have been able to watch it and if reports are to be believed the house shows have suffered with attendance issues, I feel having the show more easily accessed, their show attendance numbers should improve.
Andrew More
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