TNA Wrestling and Spike TV recently signed a new TV deal that keeps Impact Wrestling on the air through October 2014. The current deal was going to expire in October 2012.
According to a report from Mike Johnson of PW Insider, TNA executives are very relieved to have this agreement in place so early, but they did have a lot going for them in negotiations with Spike. Johnson reports, “One of the points discussed during negotiations was that Ultimate Fighter, which left Spike for F/X as part of the big money UFC-FOX TV deal is only doing around 1.2 million viewers while TNA is bringing close to 1.7 million viewers in for Spike weekly, with much of that audience being the coveted Males 18-34, which is a base any cable network would want. The goal among both sides is to get that audience viewing number to two million a week.”
The report also says the contract is also specific to Impact Wrestling only and does not cover new TV ventures outside of the current Impact program. Also, the contract doesn’t include set-in-stone provisions for live TV specials or more TNA Impact Wrestling road tapings outside of the Impact Zone. However, all indications are that TNA will continue to bring Impact on the road when warranted if it makes sense.
