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Andrew Wallenstein Joins the Show
(The ongoing TikTok saga, a new UFC TV rights deal and Wii Tennis takes on the Australian Open)
Eric Traub
January 19, 2025
What's On Tap
This Week’s Episode (Andrew Wallenstein)
Andrew’s Bio:
President and Chief Media Analyst at Variety VIP+
Former Co-Editor in Chief at Variety
On Air Contributor at NPR
Digital Media Editor at the Hollywood Reporter
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Episode Highlights
I’m more optimistic than I’ve ever been that TikTok will keep going… [TikTok] has always been too big to fail.”
I think there’s so much more this company [TikTok] can do when you look at especially what it’s done on the commerce side…I think that’s really the next layer of growth for TikTok, it could be the next Amazon.”
So UFC is very important [to ESPN], and yet you’ve got Netflix who is going to want to make a splash, they’ve already got WWE, which is owned by the same company [Endeavor]. Amazon could be an aggressive bidder here; Youtube could be a bidder here.
The Host Weighs In
Great to have Andrew on the show this week.
I appreciate his kind words! I’m biased of course, but I agree with him!
Now a few thoughts regarding this week’s stories:
The week started and ended with TikTok. As Andrew said, even with SCOTUS upholding the TikTok ban, which went into place today, TikTok isn’t going anywhere. In fact, just in the last hour, TikTok announced that it is restoring service to its 170 million U.S. users, after President Elect Trump announced his day 1 executive order to delay the ban by 90 days.
This was expected. What’s not known is what the heck is going to happen over the next 90 days. TikTok will keep searching for a buyer and it’s likely that TikTok’s new buyer will be friendly with Trump. ByteDance called Elon’s bid for TikTok “pure fiction”, but I wouldn’t be so sure. I would put my money on Elon here.
As this story keeps unfolding over the next couple of weeks and months, I’ll be bringing you the latest expert takes every week.
Furthermore, Bloomberg reported this week that UFC is actively searching for a new TV rights deal valued at $1 billion a year. Given UFC’s massive growth in popularity and the all out streaming wars between Disney, Netflix, Amazon and others, I’m expecting the deal to be higher than $1 billion a year. As Andrew mentioned, UFC is so important to ESPN, which is currently in its last year of its $450 million TV rights deal with UFC. How much Disney is willing to pay to keep UFC will be fascinating.
If I was a betting man, I’d say that UFC will sign a $1.5 billion a year TV rights deal with Netflix. Netflix showed their muscles in sports streaming with the NFL Christmas Day games and the Jake Paul - Mike Tyson fight, and I expect them to keep flexing those muscles here.
Finally, if you haven’t seen the Wii version of the Australian Open, you are missing out. Maybe if New York Jets games were animated, I’d actually stop crying during their games. A guy can wish!
That’s all for me. We are back this week with Andrew Citrin, Senior Director of Revenue Analytics at Dotdash Meredith.
Feedback
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