FOX Made Pitch For RAW, Reason NBCUniversal Was Desperate For RAW

Before securing rights to air SmackDown, FOX was reportedly also in the hunt to acquire rights to air RAW and it is believed that the offer for it was in the range of $240 million to $270 million. However, NBCUniversal’s USA Network will end up keeping the rights to air RAW as they have the right to match any offer as stipulated in its contract with WWE.
With RAW being an extremely critical show for and on The USA Network, they simply could not afford to lose the show but declined to match the SmackDown offer. Estimated figures suggest that if RAW left the USA Network, its average overall rating would fall by approximately 21% (a gigantic number for one show). This would explain why the company was ready to match any offer for RAW, especially to rival FOX. Losing SmackDown will still have an impact on The USA Network, but not nearly as much as if they lost RAW.