Nick Khan Comments On NBC Potentially Buying WWE, Bad Bunny & Cardi B, More

During a recent interview with Forbes, WWE president Nick Khan discussed the company reaching out to a younger demographic, Bad Bunny, and potentially bringing in Cardi B. He also addressed rumors of NBC potentially buying WWE.

Nick Khan on WWE’s plan to reach a younger demographic:

“That’s a lifelong, career-long desire. No matter when people start watching, they’re always going to obviously get older, so you always have to figure out a new way to get young people in. So what we’re in the middle of—the bad Bunny thing … that’s obviously tailored towards a young audience. We’re in the process now of developing a number of different animated properties, some with the desired demographic of 2 to 6 years old, so the thought is to get kids in young. We’re also reevaluating our entire gaming strategy. So I’m not convinced that there are a group of 15-year-olds watching linear television who just don’t happen to be watching us. They’re finding our content elsewhere, and we have to get to them before they’re even 15, to make sure we have a chance to win over new fans so when the other fans start to phase out and get older, we always have a new population coming in.”

On WWE currently working with Bad Bunny and potentially bringing in Cardi B:

“Yes, and specifically the two that you just mentioned. Obviously, there is no touring right now, so the ability to get Bad Bunny for however long this run is going to be—and you’re going to see a lot of him—I don’t believe that would have existed in a world where Bad Bunny was on tour. That’s going to be a continual effort, so we’re always going to watch Bad Bunny, Cardi B to get involved. It made it a touch easier to get a deal done this time because they weren’t—over the course of however long the deal is—is not in 25 different cities during that time. The bulk of concert money is made in the summertime. It doesn’t appear as if there are going to be big tours during the summer, even we’re all hopeful, so we’ll see what other folks we’re talking to and who you’ll see in the mix.”

On NBCUniversal potentially buying WWE:

“We haven’t discussed it once. At all. By the way, thrilled with being on network TV at Fox. I think I sort of pushed on the emphasis [during the earnings call] on broadcast television, and how important that is, so love that, love what we’re doing with NBC, but no, there has been no dialogue internally or externally on anything like that.”