The deal with the WWE is the first catch-up deal that YouTube has done outside the UK and forms part of a growing trend to put sports content on the site. In January 2010, Google announced a worldwide deal for live Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket on YouTube. Nevertheless this is the first deal for shows that air on broadcast and cable TV to be available through the site in the US (WWE Raw, airs on NBCU's USA Network, Smackdown on Fox's MyTVNetwork), and a rare example of a content producer making its shows available as catch-up beyond the broadcast partner's own site or its immediate affiliates.

The move to YouTube should been seen in the context of the WWE increasingly looking to control more of its own destiny. The company is exploring the launch of a free-to-air channel as a joint venture with NBCU following the relatively unsuccessful launch of a SVoD offer for cable TV WWE 24/7. The WWE has a track record of being progressive online and was early to capitalise on the market for online PPV sport with live streams of special events like Wrestlemania having been available since 2005. The YouTube deal follows an agreement to make clips and a limited number of full-length NXT shows available through Hulu (which the WWE is also using as its player for free to view video in wwe.com).