IT'S OFFICIAL, WWE SIGNS THREE YEAR DEAL WITH THE USA NETWORK

WWE sent out the following press release this morning.

NEW YORK & STAMFORD, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)----World Wrestling Entertainment® and NBC Universal have inked a new, three-year agreement that will return WWE cable programming, including ratings titan Monday Night RAW®, to USA Network beginning in October 2005, it was announced today by Linda McMahon, WWE CEO, and Bonnie Hammer, president, USA Network and SCI FI Channel. RAW, a cable mainstay for more than 12 years, continues to be the most watched regularly scheduled year-round program on ad-supported cable television.

The agreement is a homecoming of sorts for WWE, which introduced Monday Night RAW on USA on January 11, 1993. The prime time cable series flourished for seven years, establishing cable ratings records, before moving to Spike TV on September 25, 2000.

"I'm thrilled to be back in business again with Vince and Linda McMahon," said Hammer. "I led the USA team that helped grow RAW into a true pop phenomenon, and it's great to welcome it home."

In addition to Monday Night Raw, USA will air a one-hour weekend RAW-branded program, and NBCU's Telemundo will air Spanish-language versions of RAW. NBC will also air at least two yearly, 90-minute Saturday late night RAW specials.

"This broad and diverse distribution will provide WWE excellent platforms from which to reach our existing fans as well as broaden our audience," said McMahon. "We're very happy to be returning to USA Network, where we experienced some of our greatest successes, and to NBC, where we had tremendous success with our series of late-night specials, Saturday Night Main Event, in the 1980's."

"The WWE's return to USA Network and our arrangement with the other NBC Universal properties, is indicative of how we as a company can offer unique cross-networking opportunities," added Jeff Gaspin, president NBC Universal Cable Entertainment and Cross-Network Strategy. "RAW will put USA and NBC Universal Cable into an incredibly competitive position and I couldn't be happier about this relationship."

MORE NEWS AND NOTES ON WWE'S TV DEAL WITH USA

In addition to the information sent out earlier today by WWE in their press release, there are some other tidbits about their new deal with NBC Universal that were included with the filing that WWE turned in to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

- Raw begins airing in October on USA, Telemundo and possibly on Mun2.

- In addition to the two 90 minute specials on NBC, there will be at least one yearly, one hour special on the USA Network.

- WWE will receive rights fees for their programming. USA will sell all of the advertising and keep the revenue from the sales. WWE will no longer sell the advertising.

- WWE expects revenues of about $37 million from advertising sales for the fiscal year that end on 4/30. Of that, they will net around $13 million. That will be gone on the new deal.

- NBC Universal has committed at least $8 million to a multi-platform ad campaign to promote the launch of the programs on USA.

- WWE will remain on Spike through the end of September, then start on USA.
------------------
-PWInsider

It's a celebration bitch, also because I pitched a 1 hitter with Dontrelle Willis in ESPN 2K5! (celebrates)

USA Network... home of Monk and now WWE again. :)

Huzzah! No more hillbilly network! What about SmackDown and the other shows?

I hope Smackdown gets moved over to USA Network. I think I read that the only weekend show that will be kept is Heat, so there goes Velocity.

I imagine Velocity will become syndicated or something (see Jakked/Metal).

I think this is fantastic news as despite preemptions, USA was a better network for Raw to be on and I think they had a better image back then.

I always thought moving to TNN was a mistake, from day one.

Just wanted to throw this out there......but what if they decided to reunite the brands after this goes into place? Just thinking about it because of the fact that they might not have anywhere for SD.