WWE announced a positive change for fans in certain territories. Those territories don’t have WWE programming on their traditional television like the US, UK and most of the world have and historically were left to bootleg/pirate the shows out of necessity. Those days are over sooner than a lot think.
WWE announced via email that starting tonight, WWE Raw and WWE SmackDown will air live on YouTube in certain territories around the world, such as Spain, the Netherlands, Brazil and many more. Although the email said the streams will start with tonight’s SmackDown, they have already started with live streaming with this week’s Raw. These countries don’t have WWE programming on television at this moment, a slate of countries that evolves from time to time as television rights get renewed and canceled all the time.
This is an update of their international strategy as Raw and SmackDown streamed on YouTube on-demand (although Raw was shortened to two hours as opposed to three) within twenty-four hours of live broadcasting before this change took effect. With Raw and SmackDown moving to Netflix globally in January 2025 (with Raw’s breakfiller promoting that the available territory is getting Raw on Netflix in January), this might be a way to prepare fans living in territories without WWE coverage on TV with the possibility to watch those shows live, plus ending the necessary piracy that most fans of those territories had to commit to watch those shows.
Below is the list of territories that were able to access Raw’s live stream on YouTube and likely will be served by WWE via YouTube:
Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bolivia, Brazil, Belarus, Belize, Serbia, Timor-Leste, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Romania, Guatemala, Georgia, Greenland, Croatia, Honduras, Portugal, Paraguay, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Ecuador, Solomon Islands, Spain, Montenegro, Moldova, Uzbekistan, Macedonia, Finland, Fiji, Falkland Islands, Nicaragua, Netherlands, Norway, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Colombia, Chile, Czech Republic, Costa Rica, Kyrgyzstan, Suriname, El Salvador, Slovakia, Slovenia, Kazakhstan, Sweden, Denmark, Uruguay, Lao PDR, Taiwan, Thailand, Venezuela, Iceland, Armenia, Albania, Argentina, Azerbaijan, Indonesia
Below are some screenshots to provide proof of what’s written above, including the mail announcing the live broadcasts and Raw’s breakfiller:
So, what do you think? Are you in one of those territories and happy to be able to watch shows legally with a temporary ease of access? Let us know your thoughts on this change in the comment section below.
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