YouTube Signs Deal with WWE for Full-Length Wrestling Episodes

While user-created videos are still YouTube’s bread and butter, in terms of traffic, not revenue, the site has been on a crusade to get hold of as much professional content as possible. It’s been winning some small victories and has now scored a pretty important one with the addition of full-length, catch-up episodes of various World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) shows.

“Wrestling fans, have we got a body-slam of an announcement for you. Today, we’re announcing a new partnership with the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) that will bring full-length episodes of Friday Night Smackdown, WWE NXT, WWE Superstars and ECW to YouTube users in the U.S. on the WWE YouTube channel,” YouTube announced.

“In case that's not enough pile-driving goodness for you, there will be even more clips from Monday Night Raw, footage from classic WWE matches, and videos from WWE Superstars and Divas like John Cena, Chris Jericho and Alicia Fox,” the announcement also read.

Wrestling fans will sure welcome the opportunity to catch up on their favorite shows or re-watch their favorite fights and there seems to be a plethora of content made available. If you’re from the US, you can check it all out on the WWE YouTube channel.

But, even if you’re not a wrestling fan, the announcement is significant. This would be the first time YouTube has hosted recent episodes of TV programming, at least in the US. A number of TV shows and even feature films are already available on YouTube, but they’re generally rather old, certainly nothing like what Hulu has to offer.

The new wrestling deal is likely just the first step and YouTube may have some big announcements yet to come. The site had previously signed a major contract with the British Channel 4, which made available fresh, full-length videos in the UK. It is also experimenting with video rentals through the YouTube Store.