WWE’s current five-year deal with Sky Sports will be expiring at the end of 2014 and a recent bidding war could end up helping the company when it comes time to negotiate a new deal. According to a report by Dave Meltzer, Sky Sports recently lost the bidding for the UEFA Champions League and EUEFA Europa League TV rights from 2015 to 2018.
Sky had been paying an estimated $384 million for a three-year deal to carry the soccer leagues and recently upped the bid to $800 million for another three years, only to get out bid by BT Sports which put up a bid of $1.44 billion. The report noted how Sky wouldn’t want to lose WWE programming in what could allow WWE to increase rights fees overseas.