Will SmackDown Air Live Next Year On Fox?

Although the deal hasn’t been officially announced, news about SmackDown’s move to Fox in the fall of 2019 continues to come out.

TheWrap, an entertainment and media news website, reported Wednesday that SmackDown will remain live when it moves to Friday nights on Fox.

Fox’s deal with WWE for SmackDown is rumored to be five years and just north of $1 billion. That would pair with NBCUniversal’s rumored five-year, $265 million renewal of Raw reported by The Hollywood Reporter, bringing WWE’s new TV contract haul to $2.35 billion over five years.

If the deals are finalized at the reported terms, the two deals would be worth a combined $470 million per year, a 261% increase from the reported $130 million WWE currently receives per year for both Raw and SmackDown from NBCU.

SmackDown on Fox won’t be the brand’s first time on broadcast television — the 19-year-old show used to air on UPN, then The CW, then MyNetworkTV, before heading to NBCUniversal’s Syfy and, ultimately, the USA Network.

TheWrap expects SmackDown on Fox to made official with an announcement as early as next week.