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Why WWE's Network TV Deal Could Signal a Way Forward for College Football

We laughed last year when those wacky millennials were shocked at the legality of buying antennas that allowed them to receive—gasp—broadcast television signals for free. But perhaps we should have begun extrapolating.

If we had, then the deal Fox reached this week with the WWE might not seem so surprising. The network will pay a reported $200 million a year for five years to broadcast on Fridays what the NBC Universal-owned USA Network has been broadcasting on Tuesdays. That’s $200 million for 104 hours a year of live SmackDown programming that fans love to watch communally.