Turner Sports Reportedly AEW’s TV Home, Deal Likely To Be Announced Next Month

– All Elite Wrestling’s new television home is rumored to be a sizable one, and could be announced during the May upfronts. The Fight Oracle (a well known MMA reporter) reports that Turner Sports will announce the show during their network presentation on May 15th. Turner Sports operates TBS and TNT (and other networks like TruTV) and is also under the Warner Media umbrella, which also includes HBO.

The information about the announcement does make sense, as broadcast and cable networks present their fall lineups to advertisers and announce them to the public at the upfronts. As such, it would make sense that an AEW announcement would be announced in May if the October timeframe that Jim Ross revealed is accurate. It would also fits Ross’ description of a “key cable station.” News of Turner being the mystery network that AEW was going to debut on has been making the rounds for awhile but there hasn’t been any significant report on it until now.

The report also adds that AEW will air on Tuesday nights and premiere the same week that Smackdown moves to FOX (and begins airing on Friday nights). Smackdown is set to premiere on Friday, October 4th on Fox, which would place AEW’s TV debut on Tuesday, October 1st, if this report is accurate. For what it’s worth, WWE recently announced that they will premiere a “studio” show on FS1 on Tuesday nights this fall, so if AEW does premiere on Tuesday nights in October, those shows would presumably go head-to-head.

Turner Sports has been a key figure in profesional wrestling telecasts for thirty-plus years, with TBS (and later TNT) airing WCW from 1989 through 2001, when WCW was sold to WWE.

-BREAKING- @WarnerMediaGrp aka Turner Sports (TNT, TBS) will present @AEWrestling at their upfronts to advertisers next month. WarnerMedia/Turner upfronts are currently scheduled for May 15th. This is how Networks announce their content lineup for the fall season to advertisers.

— The Fight Oracle (@fightoracle) April 10, 2019

Further explanation of what an “upfront” is in tv advertising pic.twitter.com/b2oWowGL8p

— The Fight Oracle (@fightoracle) April 10, 2019

HBO is under the WarnerMedia umbrella. There’s a lot of talk in the tv industry that they want to make HBO more mainstream. More widely distributed. This is just me thinking now.. maybe you put AEW “PPV” events on HBO.

— The Fight Oracle (@fightoracle) April 11, 2019

Word is @AEWrestling will debut the same week as WWE Smackdown moving to Fox. AEW will be on Tuesdays.

— The Fight Oracle (@fightoracle) April 11, 2019