ESPN will reportedly continue to simulcast first hour of WWE PLEs on linear networks, despite ‘SummerSlam’ absence

The second-biggest event on the WWE calendar, SummerSlam, came and went last weekend without any exposure on the ESPN family of networks. That decision came as a surprise to many wrestling fans, as ESPN has made a habit of airing a simulcast for WWE Premium Live Events (PLEs) since beginning a media rights deal with the organization last September.

For nearly a year now, WWE PLEs have aired exclusively on ESPN Unlimited, the premium tier of ESPN’s direct-to-consumer app that provides subscribers with all content under the ESPN umbrella from its linear television channels to app-exclusive live events like SummerSlam. Initially, the rollout of WWE PLEs on ESPN Unlimited was rocky. The plan costs $30 per month when purchased directly from ESPN, but users who get ESPN through a cable, satellite, or virtual TV bundle were promised full access to the app at no additional cost before it launched last summer.

That quickly proved not to be the case, with major distributors like Comcast and YouTube TV not gaining authentication access to ESPN Unlimited until many months after the app launched. Thus, many WWE fans that already had ESPN through a pay-TV bundle still had to pay an additional $30 to watch PLEs, at least until their provider gained authentication.

Fans in that situation who didn’t want to shell out the extra money were at least able to watch a one-hour simulcast of major events like WrestleMania. Still, no such simulcast was made available for SummerSlam, leaving fans to question why there had been a change.

Dave Meltzer, author of the Wrestling Observer newsletter, initially reported that ESPN’s decision to do without a simulcast for SummerSlam was because the simulcast approach hadn’t been generating enough new subscriptions. That, however, doesn’t appear to be the case according to Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful.com, who says the SummerSlam simulcast did not happen due to “scheduling conflicts” on ESPN. He added that ESPN plans to continue WWE simulcasts in the future, particularly for the biggest events of the year, per James Hetfield in PW Mania.

On the first night of SummerSlam, ESPN aired a Savannah Bananas game. On the second night of the event, ESPN aired a women’s sports doubleheader featuring a WNBA game and an NWSL game.

ESPN pays WWE $325 million per year for broadcast rights to its PLEs. The deal coincided with the launch of ESPN’s new direct-to-consumer app and was certainly seen as a means of acquiring new subscribers to the platform. It’s unclear how effective the deal has been in that sense; ESPN does not break out subscriber figures for its direct-to-consumer app.

Regardless, it does not appear as if the network’s linear simulcasts of WWE PLEs are in jeopardy, at least for the major events.