World Wrestling Entertainment may have slightly missed revenue targets — and overperformed on cash flow — in the third quarter, but executives spent the majority of a conference call with analysts talking about the potential for big gains in its renewal talks for its flagship shows — Monday Night Raw and SmackDown — which are expected to commence early next year.

WWE reported Q3 revenue of $256 million, about 1% below analysts consensus estimates of $259 million, but beat and raised estimates for cash flow in the period. WWE said adjusted OIBDA for the period was $78 million, 15% above consensus estimates of $68 million and driven by strong live event revenue of $28 million. As a result, WWE increased its full-year AOIBDA estimate to between $305 million and $315 million from the previous mark of $270 million to $300 million.

On a conference call with analysts to discuss results, WWE president and chief revenue officer Nick Khan said rights for Raw will come up for renewal with Hulu during the back half of 2022, while international licensing for its direct-to-consumer offering WWE Network expire at around the same time.

Khan seemed especially encouraged by the Hulu talks, adding that Raw “has a substantial and recurring audience who watch the show via delayed viewing week to week” on the streaming service. He noted that the last time WWE and Hulu negotiated those rights — in 2018 — the streaming landscape was considerably different than today.

Regarding international licensing, Khan said that WWE has a strategy to optimize WWE Network’s value outside the U.S., and a model that programming buyers are responding to.

“As so many U.S.-based companies look to go international overnight, it sets up a competitive global landscape that none of us have seen over the course of our careers,” Khan said on the call. “We continue to believe that will garner great results.”

But the bulk of the optimism was for Raw and SmackDown renewals in the U.S. Khan pointed out that during the last negotiation, WWE was able to more than triple its fees from $130 million for the shows to $470 million.

“We are as bullish now on those rights as we were when we went into the prior negotiations,” Khan said.

The CFO pointed to recent sports rights deals for the NFL, NHL, Major League Baseball, the SEC, La Liga and Wimbledon, and pointed out that other interested players like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV and Netflix are sniffing around the sports market.

Amazon and Apple are reportedly in the lead among the possible bidders for NFL Sunday Ticket and Netflix chief operating officer Ted Sarandos has said publicly that he would rather own sports properties than run them.

In a research note, Wells Fargo Securities media analyst Steven Cahall said NBCUniversal’s Peacock streaming service is expected to be the bidder to beat for the WWE properties.

“We expect Peacock to go hard for the re-air rights given it already has Raw and NXT on linear + domestic streaming rights on Peacock, so it's really a question about whether media companies compete for the rights against NBCU,” Cahall wrote. “International is tougher to pin down as no comprehensive ex-US OTT rights have ever been struck to our knowledge, so a single deal for WWE Network [outside the continental U.S.] would be truly groundbreaking.

The coronavirus outbreak has forced the WWE to move its April 5 WrestleMania 36 event from Tampa Bay to its training facility in Orlando, where it will take place without a live audience.

The pro wrestling outfit said in a statement: “In coordination with local partners and government officials, WrestleMania and all related events in Tampa Bay will not take place. However, WrestleMania will still stream live on Sunday, April 5 at 7 p.m. ET on WWE Network and be available on pay-per-view. Only essential personnel will be on the closed set at WWE’s training facility in Orlando, Florida to produce WrestleMania.”

Related: Sports Industry Suffers Body Blow from Coronavirus Fears

The WWE aired its March 13 live SmackDown show from its Orlando facility.

WrestleMania 36 is the latest sports/sports entertainment event affected by the coronavirus outbreak. Last week sports leagues including the NFL, NBA, NHL and the PGA have suspended play, while the NCAA has canceled its annual March Madness college basketball men’s and women’s basketball tournament. 

March madness took on a whole new meaning for the sports industry this past week as major sports leagues took unprecedented moves to shut down play amid concerns about the spread of the coronavirus disease.

With the NBA, NHL, MLB, MLS and PGA postponing live games and tournaments -- and the NCAA cancelling its annual March Madness college basketball tournament -- sports fans face the sobering prospect of not watching or attending live games for at least a month, and most likely well into the Spring.

RELATED: Masters Golf Tourney Postponed by Virus

Ring sports events weren’t exempt from the upheaval caused by the coronavirus outbreak.ESPN and boxing promoter Top Rank KO’d its March 13 and March 17 boxing cards, while the WWE last night aired its live Friday Night SmackDown show with no audience. It's still unclear whether the pro wrestling outfit will make any changes to its showcase April 5 WrestleMania 36 event due to coronavirus concerns.

There are live sports events airing on cable sports networks this weekend. ESPN will distribute tonight’s (March 14) Kevin Lee-Charles Oliveria UFC mixed martial arts fight card from Brazil, albeit without any fans in the stands. FS1 on March 15 will televise the Pro Bowlers Association’s Storm World Series of Bowling XI World Championship finals, also without an audience.

“Overall, this is a difficult one for fans,” said sports analyst Lee Berke. “Nobody is playing and [the sports blackout] is potentially going to extend for weeks and months.”

Berke said the moves were necessary to ensure the health and well-being of the U.S. population and will ultimately cost the sports industry a fortune in terms of lost revenue -- Disney and AT&T are expected to lose in ad revenue about $481 million and $211 million respectively, if the rest of the season and playoffs are not played, according to reports.

Berke adds however, the leagues and sports networks will recover once the games begin again, although he would not predict when that might be.

“There's a lot of negotiations and logistics that have to take place from a distribution, scheduling, sponsorship, production standpoint, but it's all manageable," he said. "The one thing that the networks are good at is the blocking and tackling of logistics, but it’s going to be expensive and nerve racking for everybody.”

Once the games do begin, the fans will come back, particularly as the country also recovers financially from volatile stock market performances due mostly to coronavirus concerns. Berke pointed to ratings increases for national and regional cable sports networks after the financial crisis in 2008.

“When the live games come back sports viewership will come back with a vengeance,” he said. “We might be heading into an economic downturn and viewers may not have the funds to go out like they did before the [virus outbreak], but they'll be able and willing to watch sports games on TV.”

FS1 in November will launch a weekly late night WWE-themed studio show, the sports network announced Thursday.

The one-hour WWE Backstage series will air Tuesdays at 11 pm beginning Nov. 5, and will feature the latest WWE pro wrestling news, according to the network. WWE broadcaster Renee Young and WWE personality Booker T will host the show, which will also feature a rotating cast of current and former WWE Superstars, said FS1.

FS1 will offer a preview of the show on Oct. 15, following the conclusion of baseball’s postseason American League Championship Series Game 3 telecast.

The launch of WWE Backstage will come on the heels of Fox Broadcasting’s Oct. 4 debut of the weekly WWE SmackDown series, which moves to Fox from USA Network. 

USA Network’s WWE Monday Night Raw series was the most social television show last week, according to Nielsen.

The live, three hour show drew 2.3 million combined Facebook, Instagram and Twitter interactions to top all cable and broadcast shows for the week of March 4 to March 10, according to Nielsen’s Social Content Ratings.

ABC’s March 10 episode of American Idol was second with 1.2 million interactions, followed by ABC’s March 4 The Bachelor show, with 1 million interactions. USA’s March 5 WWE SmackDown! (954,000) and ABC’s March 6 American Idol (912,000) rounded out the top five most social TV shows of the week, according to Nielsen. 

The WWE’s two primetime franchises WWE Monday Night Raw and WWE SmackDown! pinned down the most social media interactions of any television shows last week, according to Nielsen.

The pro wrestling outfit’s Jan. 14 WWE Monday Night Raw telecast drew 2.6 million combined Facebook, Twitter and Instagram interactions during the week of Jan. 14 to Jan. 20, according to Nielsen’s weekly Social Content Ratings report. The WWE’s Jan. 15 SmackDown! episode finished second for the week with 1.4 million interactions.

NBC’s America’s Got Talent was third with 1.2 million interactions, followed by The CW’s Riverdale and NBC’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine, according to Nielsen.

Sunday’s two NFL Championship playoff telecasts dominated social media chatter for live sports events during the week. CBS’s New England Patriots-Kansas City Chiefs AFC championship game garnered a whopping 10 million social media interactions, while Fox’s Los Angeles Rams-New Orleans Saints game pulled in some 7.1 million Facebook, Instagram and Twitter interactions, according to Nielsen. 

After making a stunning bid, Fox has pinned down the rights to air the WWE’s SmackDown series starting in the fall of 2019.

The deal is nearly complete, according to a published report, and would have Fox paying nearly $1 billion over five years for SmackDown.

SmackDown currently airs on USA Network. NBCU, which declined to match Fox's offer, was paying substantially less under its agreement. WWE’s long running Raw owill continue to air on USA Network.

21st Century Fox has agreed to sell most of its television and movie studio assets and its entertainment cable networks to The Walt Disney Co.

What remains, called “New Fox,” including the Fox Broadcast network, is expected to be heavy on live news and sports. The network has already acquired the rights to air Thursday Night Football from the NFL. And working with the WWE would give the network three more hours of live programming on Friday nights.

NBCU had featured its WWE programming during its upfront presentation last week, with star wrestlers including newcomer Ronda Rousey appearing in a ring on the stage at Radio City Music Hall.

In afternoon trading, shares of WWE Entertainment were up more than 1%

Fox and NBCU had no comment.

Social media was buzzing Tuesday about two OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network shows as part of a strong night for cable programming.

OWN’s The Have and The Have Nots drew 344,000 Twitter and Facebook interactions from 163,000 unique social media accounts to lead all television programs airing on Sept. 6, according to the Nielsen Social daily rankings.  

RELATED: OWN President Erik Logan talks about the network's scripted series fortunes (VIDEO)

OWN’s premiere of the Winfrey/Ava DuVernay-produced drama series Queen Sugar was second with 209,000 interactions from 105,000 unique accounts, according to Nielsen. FX’s Atlantacomedy series premiere was third, followed by USA Network’s WWE series SmackDown! and NBC’s America’s Got Talent.

Univision Deportes’ FIFA World Cup 2018 Qualifying match between the United States and Trinidad and Tobago was the most social live sports show of the day, according to Nielsen.

Syfy will look to pin down wrestling fans on Thursday nights with the January move of its popular WWE SmackDown series from Friday evenings.

SmackDown, which is averaging 3.1 million viewers on Friday nights, will move to Thursdays beginning Jan. 15 at 8 p.m., said the network. Currently the network airs acquired movies in primetime on Thursdays.

"Quite simply, more young men watch television on Thursday nights than on Fridays,” said Michael Engleman, Executive Vice President, Marketing, Digital and Global Brand Strategy for Syfy in a statement. “Among Men 18-49, PUTs (persons using television) are 15 percent higher compared to Fridays, expanding the potential audience for SmackDown. Since the majority of broadcast programming skews female, we're also using Thursday nights to counterprogram."

Syfy tonight (Oct. 10) will televise the 15th anniversary episode of the WWE’s weekly series SmackDown, the network said Friday.

SmackDown, the second-longest running weekly show in television history behind the WWE’s Monday Night Raw, will feature several guest stars during its anniversary show, including WWE superstar/actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, NFL star Ben Roethlisberger, Cedric The Entertainer, Snoop Dogg, Kyle Busch and William Shatner.

Tonight’s episode will mark the 790th for SmackDown since the series launched in 1999. Currently the series is averaging 3.1 million viewers, tops for a cable series on Friday night, according to the WWE.  

World Wrestling Entertainment stock plunged more than 40% on Friday, a day after it had announced a disappointing carriage deal with NBC Universal and warned investors it would need to attract more subscribers to its over-the-top network to make up for pay-per view losses.

WWE announced on Thursday that it has secured a multi-year deal with NBCU’s USA Network for its Monday Night Raw franchise and Syfy channel for Friday Night Smackdown.

The deal ended months of speculation regarding the future of the programs, but apparently fell short of expectations. Analysts had speculated that the shows – Monday Night Raw is USA’s top rated show and is one of the main reasons that network is tops with young adults – could double or even triple their rates. In a recent research report, CJS Securities analyst Daniel Moore said the Raw and Smackdown deals “will shape the direction of earnings and cash flow for the next several years.” In an interview back in March, Moore said that at least of doubling of those fees was already built into the stock price.  WWE did not reveal what it received from NBCU in the new deal, but in a Friday note, Moore estimated the increase was about 85% above the old deal. Coupled with its announcement that it would need to add between 1.3 million and 1.4 million subscribers to its over-the-top channel to make up for Pay-Per-View losses, and investors apparently were spooked.

The NBCU deal is just the latest disappointment for WWE investors. In April, the company had said it added 667,000 new subscribers to its over-the-top network,  far short of the 1-million-plus additions investors were hoping for. WWE has said it expects to reach the 1 million subscriber milestone by the end of the year.

“Given management’s more optimistic tone and the fact that other major sports franchises have garnered much higher increases, this outcome is likely to be viewed as disappointing by many investors,” Moore wrote in a note to clients Friday.

WWE stock fell as much as 47% ($9.38 each) to $10.55 per share in early trading Friday. The stock closed at $11.27 per share, down $8.66 or 43.5%.