Today, Impact Wrestling has announced their departure from PopTV and their move to Pursuit. Ed Nordholm, president of Impact Wrestling stated, “Pursuit is a natural fit for Impact”.
Rusty Faulk, CEO and founder of Pursuit channel, has welcomed Impact into their Friday lineup of popular shows. Impact’s choice to migrate to Pursuit seems a little off-brand. Pursuit hosts 98 shows, all catered to outdoors men and women, mainly on fishing and hunting.
The way Impact Wrestling fits into Pursuit’s lineup, is by offering “adventurous content to feed viewer’s wild sides”, as stated by Faulk. The founder of Pursuit is not wrong either, many outdoors men and women probably would enjoy watching professional wrestling. Making this transition one that could possibly fit well, if their focus groups are correct.
Ed Nordholm agreed with Faulk’s statement on Impact Wrestling fitting their lineup. Nordholm went on to state that the Pursuit viewer base consists of passionate viewers who correlate strongly to Impact’s audience. Mr. Nordholm also added that Pursuit has had a 15 percent increase in broadcast distribution this month alone.
Pursuit is not the only station who has experienced tremendous growth in this partnership, either. Impact Wrestling has come off a fantastic year of viewership growth, as well as an increase in positive fan engagement. By collaborating with another growing network, this can help see the two companies work together to expand even further.
At first glance, the migration of Impact from PopTV to Pursuit came off as a bit awkward, especially after viewing the programming list Pursuit offers. However, the move made sense after evaluating both the growth and viewer passion each party has. The change might have a negative effect on the growth potential at first, but perhaps this will open bigger things for both of them.
The biggest obstacle in their new outlook? Making sure fans are able to subscribe to Pursuit. Perhaps a step in the direction of online streaming would be most beneficial to Impact.
Pursuit will kick off hosting Impact on Friday, Jan 11 at 10 p.m. ET, the day after their Homcoming pay-per-view.
