AEW and Warner Bros. Discovery are continuing to experiment with new broadcast formats during major sporting events.
This past weekend, AEW Collision aired in two one-hour blocks—one on Saturday and one on Sunday—following coverage of the NCAA basketball tournament. According to Andrew Zarian of Beyond the Bell, WBD and AEW are planning another experiment during the NHL Playoffs, which could involve a four-hour special.
“Spoke to someone a couple weeks ago, and they were telling me that these are experiments that Warner is willing to try,” Zarian said. “College basketball takes precedence, the NBA All-Star weekend takes precedence. Rather than canceling the show, let’s put it on a different time slot and see if we could do something with it, maybe you’re going to attract different types of fans.”
“We have another opportunity for this during the Stanley Cup, during the NHL Playoffs. So listen, anything could change here,” he continued.
“I heard from two sides, from Warner, that during the Stanley Cup, there’s going to be an opportunity to do something very big. And the way that it was presented to me is that it is a possibility of a four-hour special happening.”
Zarian clarified that it might not necessarily be four hours in length, but could be a multi-hour block of programming.
“The idea is still soft. it could be just Dynamite on and then followed by a Collision, so a four-hour block.”
The NHL Playoffs are set to begin shortly after the conclusion of the regular season on April 17. TNT is the exclusive broadcaster of the Stanley Cup Finals, which are expected to begin around the end of May or early June.
Zarian also mentioned that he has been hearing positive feedback from WBD regarding AEW.
“I’ve been hearing very positive stuff from WBD, and I’ve brought up the ratings and the internet chatter to them,” he said. “It doesn’t even resonate. The messaging on the internet’s not even resonating with these people and they’re in key positions there.”
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