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The opening hour of each night will be simulcast on linear ESPN networks—Night 1 on ESPN2, Night 2 on ESPN—featuring two matches each. Unsurprisingly, the opening matches include participants with crossover appeal. Saturday opens with a team-up between uber-popular YouTuber IShowSpeed and internet-personality-turned-pro-wrestler Logan Paul, while former UFC champ Brock Lesnar headlines the Sunday opener. The matches certainly fit well with ESPN’s strategy to reach beyond diehard WWE viewers who’ve already signed up for the $29.99/month DTC subscription.

“By starting WrestleMania on ESPN’s linear networks, we’re giving fans a meaningful look in window to experience the content, which is most important for casual fans who may not be as familiar with WWE, while creating a natural pathway to the full, enhanced experience on the ESPN App, where viewers can watch the complete event, including pre-show and post-show coverage, all in one place,” Emily Horowitz, VP of ESPN DTC Business & Strategy, told CFX.

ESPN inked a five-year, $1.6 billion agreement last year to become the exclusive home of WWE premium live events (PLEs), which include flagship programs WrestleMania, “SummerSlam” and “Survivor Series.” While ESPN Unlimited will remain the primary destination to watch these events, could we see other PLEs also make their way to linear in the near future?

“We’re always evaluating opportunities to best serve fans and maximize the reach of our programming across platforms. For big events like WrestleMania, a simulcast window on linear can be a powerful way to broaden awareness and bring more fans into the experience,” Horowitz said. “We want to be flexible and thoughtful, balancing the scale of linear with the depth and innovation of the ESPN App.”

The deal kicked off with last September’s “Wrestlepalooza,” just weeks after the launch of ESPN Unlimited. While it was a big get for Disney’s newborn sports streamer, WWE’s new home received a tepid reception from some fans. For one thing, the move to ESPN represented quite the price hike for viewers who previously paid $10.99/month to watch PLEs on NBCUniversal’s Peacock.

The other Andre the Giant-sized issue was that, while pay TV subs are able to authenticate into ESPN Unlimited at no additional cost, that was limited to a select group of providers at launch: Charter Spectrum, Verizon Fios, DirecTV, Fubo and Hulu + Live TV. Fortunately, ESPN has worked to iron out that wrinkle, including by giving Comcast Xfinity and Cox customers access. YouTube TV subs will be able to authenticate in the near future as well.

“We’re working closely with our distribution partners to make sure fans understand how to access WrestleMania across both linear and the ESPN App,” Horowitz explained. “That includes coordinated messaging across provider platforms, on-screen promotion and simple, authenticated pathways that make it easy for eligible subscribers to access the ESPN Unlimited plan.”

To kick off the year, ESPN launched an ad campaign featuring WWE superstars explaining the authentication process, with wrestler Kevin Owens providing an explainer specifically for Xfinity TV subs. Pay TV customers can also peruse the ESPN support page for step-by-step sign-up guides for each distributor. Horowitz said this collaboration is an example of ESPN’s “parallel paths” strategy to continue to support the pay TV ecosystem while also expanding access to content through DTC.

While ESPN has kept uncharacteristically mum about how WWE events have performed on the DTC app thus far, Horowitz called WWE a “strong addition,” saying that there are “encouraging signs across engagement and usage—particularly around live event viewing, extended time spent in the app and on-demand.” It’s also helping introduce WWE fans to the broader ESPN ecosystem. “Many are exploring additional content—from live sports to highlights and studio programming—which speaks to the strength of having all of ESPN in one place,” she said.

The Worldwide Leader in Sports is, of course, going big for its first WrestleMania, including on-site studio programming and dozens of WWE guest appearances on “SportsCenter,” “First Take” and other shows. ESPN2 aired a WrestleMania kickoff show on Friday, with pre-shows streaming on the ESPN App from 3pm and 5pm on linear Saturday and Sunday.

Then there’s the scripted feud between ESPN talk show host Pat McAfee and WWE Champion Cody Rhodes, the face of the wrestling company. McAfee turned sunglasses-wearing villain ahead of Night 1’s main event. He is expected to be ringside Saturday and up to no good, especially after Rhodes trashed McAfee’s studio this week. First Take anchor Stephen A. Smith alluded to having similar discussions to play a bad guy on WWE shows, but decided he wasn’t as “courageous” as McAfee. “I’m not trying to get hit by one of them big boys at all,” Smith said. Still, it’s a good indicator of how deeply the collaboration between the two companies could run in the coming years.

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“I was told that I would start in October, which was great. And then about a week or two later, they call and say, ‘Hey, we’ve got this little convention that if you could start a week earlier, that’d be great.’ And I’m thinking, ‘OK, I can do that,’” Gardner told the D.C. policy crowd at Thursday’s Media Institute luncheon. “Well, they didn’t tell me that there were like 8,000 people at this SCTE convention, that we had an 11,000-square-foot exhibit hall, and that I would be hosting the chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee in a fireside chat and [FCC] Chairman [Brendan] Carr. So week one was probably the pinnacle of my time at NCTA. So sorry for everything else that comes [after] that.”

The larger industry will get its chance to hear Gardner’s perspective at next week’s Syndeo Institute Leadership Forum (a limited number of tickets are available to Cable Hall of Fame table purchasers), but his brief Media Institute speech shed some light. He started by highlighting the “incredible body” of NCTA’s membership, which includes operators and content players. “We have the whole entire spectrum of connectivity together,” he said, likening cable to stock car racing. “Just like a stock car, there are very few stock parts left in a stock car. There’s very little cable left in cable… I think about the work that we do, from our programmers to our operators, and how they bring it all together. It makes a difference in how we create affordable connectivity to drive down costs.”

CFX asked Gardner to drill down a little more on how NCTA connects member companies that may look pretty disparate to outsiders. “We really do rely on each other… the ability to have that content out into the ether, for programmers to have those opportunities, and for operators to be able to say, ‘Hey, this is something that we can provide and offer’ when you look at the bundled opportunities that people are creating now,” he said, pointing to some of the positive video momentum seen in pay TV’s 4Q results.

He called AMC Global Media CEO Kristin Dolan one of NCTA’s most active board members, describing her as passionate about the opportunities the companies can create together, including in areas such as mobile. Further evidence of Dolan’s vision can be seen in AMC Global Media stepping up as the first-ever programmer to co-host SCTE TechExpo, joining Charter as the headliners for the upcoming conference in Atlanta (Sept. 29-Oct. 1).

“We don’t succeed without the connectivity that content creates. And I don’t think content is created without the connectivity that we can bring,” said Gardner.

The rest of his speech hit on some familiar refrains–the need to avoid a patchwork of state laws around AI (which drew hearty applause), the role WiFi can play in driving down the cost of mobile, the need for balanced spectrum policy, protecting 6Ghz for WiFi and the current critical shortage of memory chips. On the latter, he shared some worrying trends.

“The cost of chips in a router used to make up about 3% of the router’s cost. Today, that’s already about 20%. In the past couple of days, you’ve seen Microsoft Surface increasing the price because of memory. You’ve seen Sony Playstations increase in part because of the price of memory. You’ve seen increases in cell phone handsets because of memory,” he said. “It’s understandable when you have three companies–Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron Technology–that make about 95% of the chips that we’re talking about here… That shortage is going to create an incredible affordability crisis for consumers and consumer goods.”

The chipmakers are shifting their focus to higher-margin products as AI demand increases, “but we can’t cut off part of the economy–from automotive to your router and beyond–that relies on the chips that we need to make sure are available for affordable innovation and opportunity,” the NCTA chief said, noting that the price for DDR4 memory has already increased 700-800% YOY and some project it will increase 1200% by the end of 2026.

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The first and second rounds of the Masters averaged 3.1 million total viewers on ESPN, the network’s best mark since 2022 and up 16% from last year’s telecasts. Thursday’s competition came in at 2.7 million viewers, while Friday jumped to 3.5 million. Additionally, ESPN’s coverage of the Par 3 contest was the most-viewed since 2015 with 956,000 viewers. The final two rounds on CBS delivered 8.11 million viewers and 14 million viewers, respectively, on Saturday and Sunday. The latter was the most-watched final round in 11 years as Rory McIlroy became the fourth person ever to win back-to-back Masters.

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