Yahoo! has announced a ton of streaming video initiatives, including six original shows. Direct-to-streaming programs seem like “the next big thing” with Amazon and Netflix paving the way for TV-less television. For fans of traditional shows, Yahoo! also announced partnerships with Saturday Night Live and WWE. The company will be the “exclusive home” of SNL archives. As for WWE programming, here’s some of what you’ll be able to enjoy starting this summer:
- Monday Night Raw pre-show: A 30-minute pre-show to each new Monday Night Raw will be exclusive to Yahoo!.
- Original programming: Two weekly series of 50 episodes per year will be produced exclusively for distribution on Yahoo!.
- Premium archive: Yahoo! will have exclusive access to WWE archives of historical full matches, shows, highlights and other events.
- Additional live events: Yahoo! will air live, pre-show content for every pay-per-view event.
- Clips from current TV programming: Clips from all WWE television programs will now be available on Yahoo!.
All of this streaming goodness has me considering cutting the cord to cable (specifically, my crap-bag provider Time Warner Cable). I would certainly miss boxing and pro-wrestling PPVs, but can find other ways to enjoy those shows. I love the shift to direct-to-streaming content. It shakes up the market and is a potential change agent. As for the WWE videos that will be on Yahoo!, I’m particularly psyched for the “premium archive” feature. The WWE has a ton of classic matches in its library, including videos from most of its competitors from wrestling’s “territory” days. There are so many ’80s and ’90s matches that I’d love to see!
How about you guys and dolls? What do you think of Yahoo!’s streaming-video efforts?
What happened to that 24/7 wwe channel??
From what I heard, there were lots of hurdles in negotiating carriage rights, but it’s still something the company would like to do.