Mike Johnson of PW Insider reports that IMPACT Wrestling‘s new television deal with Anthem‘s Pursuit Channel will not be an exclusive deal. According to Johnson, “The Pursuit move is being seen as a way for Impact to take a breather and not have to worry about where the show will air as they still try to pursue a larger scale deal. With Anthem having interest in Pursuit, it was an easy move for the series to make and should Impact find a more beneficial network, home, they would have the ability to shift the series elsewhere. If that happens (and of course, it’s a big if), Pursuit has already shown interest in carrying other Impact programming, including potentially Xplosion or a Best of series. The network is happy to have Impact, feeling that their audience demographic would also want to watch pro wrestling.”
Johnson adds that IMPACT Wrestling saw changes at POP (rebranding and a shifting television lineup) as potential trouble and decided to leave on their own and retain a positive relationship with the company in lieu of getting pulled from the network altogether. Johnson also notes that Impact will likely move to Fridays at 10PM on the Fight Network in Canada. There are no current plans to air replays on Pursuit HD. Johnson notes, “Impact realizes that the move to Pursuit will see them lose a portion of their former viewership and while some in the company are spinning this as a positive, others are not as happy, feeling it was another step downward in prestige. The company is working on potential ways for the Impact Wrestling weekly series to be seen on digital platforms, but nothing has been worked out as of this writing.”
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