SPIKE DECLINES IMPACT; WWE NETWORK SUBS, BIG WWE CANADA NEWS

[supersonic]

OH SHIT - http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory/ ... s-24786713

That is a TERRIBLE number for WWE Network.

That's what I'm telling others. Only 33,000 extra subs in the past few months. Thankfully the globalization has been expedited.

[Robareid]

It's a good job too, otherwise I'm pretty sure the numbers would be lower before the next announcement, as you're bound to have a lot of cancellation/non-renewals six months after Wrestlemania

[Burnside]

OH SHIT - http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory/ ... s-24786713

That is a TERRIBLE number for WWE Network.

That's what I'm telling others. Only 33,000 extra subs in the past few months. Thankfully the globalization has been expedited.

Their original plan called for subscribers to be 80% domestic/20% international, though. No way they're hitting a million by the end of the year.

[DXvsNWO1994]

You also have to take into account the number of people who might not resubscribe next month...

[Burnside]

I also question their new scheme of offering a $19.99 monthly option, which basically means everybody will get Wrestlemania for $20 and then ignore them for the rest of the year.

[Robareid]

Maybe they won't do it for the month of Wrestlemania.

[McXal]

Of interest to us UK fans is that the US Version of the WWE Network has been confirmed as having a targeted August 2014 launch in approx. 170 countries - but the United Kingdom isn't expected to launch until October

I am concerned this all but confirms the rumours that UK will be getting a massively different version of the Network as part of a concession to the hugely powerful Sky TV over here. In some places I've read rumours that Sky TV will actually host the UK's WWE Network, and will run it like a 24/7 TV channel (a'la Manchester United's TV channel), and will only host a greatly scaled back online content (drastically less than the US Version every show/ppv from WWE/WCW/ECW etc). I'd also read that ppv's won't be included in the WWE Network in the UK so Sky still get their cut of that revenue. unlike everywhere else

All rumour and supposition of course, but I do think today's news all but confirms the UK WWE Network will be a different offering to the rest of the world. I really hope all the rumours about it being massively shitter (as a concession to the all-powerful Sky/Murdoch family) are false though. Will feel seriously cheesed off if we only get a shadow of the service everyone else gets...

[supersonic]

All the more reason to get an American bride, my friends.

[Robareid]

I really hope that's not true, but it all makes sense sadly. Screw Sky.

[D2Kvirus]

I also question their new scheme of offering a $19.99 monthly option, which basically means everybody will get Wrestlemania for $20 and then ignore them for the rest of the year.

Fitting it into their quarterly profits, it works out something like this...
Q1: Royal Rumble, Elimination Chamber = $40
Q2: WrestleMania = £20, but a lot more people paying $20 than for any other month
Q3: Money In The Bank, SummerSlam = $40
Q4: Oh shit...

Q4 is where PPV buyrates go to die, with the four lowest buyrates in WWE PPV history (December 2 Dismember, Bragging Rights 2010, Vengeance 2011 and Battleground 2013) happening at that time - October is especially bad for their buyrates, with three of that list (plus Cyber Sunday 2008, their seventh-lowest buyrate) falling that month.

Also, I guess that WWE is going to make sure there's at least 31 days between all PPVs from now on, as WM is the only PPV that WWE have staged this year that was more than 30 days after the previous one.

I would bring him in for the big title match with Elgin. Especially if they were to wait and do that match when Elgin was nearing breaking Joe's record for number of title defenses.

While the storyline works on several levels, there's one where it doesn't - Joe had 29 successful defenses, while both AmDrag and Nigel had 38, so the storyline behind match would retcon ROH's title history.

[supersonic]

Dave Meltzer notes from WWE conference call

Thursday, 31 July 2014 08:28



Some major news coming out of the WWE today

*WWE network will offer a $19.99 per month price for those who don't want to commit to the six month period. It's clear from the number of people who dropped the network even with the commitment in place that it will be much easier to just order at $9.99 and stop paying.

*A one-time payment plan has been offered. Currently subscribers are billed $9.99 per month, but now they can sign up for $59.94 and be billed all at once. The hope is that people will sign up to be billed all at once which saves money for people who decide to drop.

*The network has 700,000 subscribers as of 6/30. They didn't give an updated number. Between 4/7 and 6/30 they added 161,000 subscribers, but had 128,000 cancellations. They wouldn't give details but this is likely shortly after WrestleMania when they had the big jump in subscribers.

*The cancellation number is the huge story here.

*The network will be available in 170 countries on August 12. The key countries that affects are Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, Mexico, Spain, Norway, Sweden and Finland.

*They are targeting October for the U.K.

*Countries like Italy, UAE, Germany, Japan, China, Thailand and Malaysia would be available at a date to be announced

*WWE signed a ten year deal with Rogers Communications for exclusivity in Canada through 2024. This will include all current programming. The WWE Network will be offered as a traditional television PPV channel in Canada starting August 12. That explains the recent Observer report of WWE purchasing transponder time and testing out the network feed, as a prelude to a television availability. Rogers will own not only the broadcast rights but the digital rights to all the major WWE television shows.

*There wll be massive cost cutting internally. These costs will save the company $10 million this year and $30 million in 2015.

*The cutting wasn't specified past a seven percent reduction in the workforce. It was noted that with the reduction in the work force, there will be a one-time loss of $4.5 million for severance packages taken during the current third quarter.

*They will add Monday Night War and WWE Rivalries to the program schedule shortly.

*If they average 650,000 subscribers in the third quarter, they estimate OIBDA losses of $12 to $17 million in the next quarter, but with the cost cutbacks, annual OIBDA losses would be $25 million to $35 million. Previously they had estimated annual losses (not OIBDA, but total losses) at $45 million to $52 million.

*The network itself lost $15.5 million in OIBDA.

*The cutbacks are so significant that they now feel they can break even on 500,000 subscribers in 2015 as opposed to 1.4 million subscribers and at 1.5 million subscribers they will have OIBDA of $100 million to $120 million, which is more than they had pre-network.

*For the quarter, the company recorded $156.3 million in revenues and lost $14.5 million.

*The WrestleMania quarter last year took in $152.3 million in revenues and had $5.2 million in profits.

*On a world wide basis, WrestleMania did 690,000 buys, Extreme Rules did 108,000, Payback did 67,000 and Money in the Bank did 122,000. For 2013, those shows did 1,104,000; 245,000, 198,000 and 223,000 last year. Keep in mind U.S. totals for all shows were way down, but in theory (not fact), international should be the same. It's not, due to the number of international subscribers to the network.

*TV revenue was up from $38.7 million to $43.8 million due to Total Divas and some international contract gains.

*Digital media was down from $7.4 million to $5.2 million due to less Internet PPV purchases of WrestleMania and the other shows.

*House show attendance was up 13% domestically, misleading because they had 11 fewer shows, meaning the higher attended TV tapings make the average look higher. Because of fewer events and smaller overall attendance, arena merchandise was down 7%. This doesn't include WrestleMania, which was down this year due to a lower attendance and gate. International was down 8%

*Licensing was down due to lower video game sales.

*WWE shop revenues increased 33% from $3 million to $4 million because of an increase in orders. A lot of that increase was due to a new distribution model in the U.K. utilizing Amazon.

*Bryan and I will be doing an audio on this available this afternoon. A full breakdown of this and more WWE business items will be in next week's Observer.

[Burnside]

Of interest to us UK fans is that the US Version of the WWE Network has been confirmed as having a targeted August 2014 launch in approx. 170 countries - but the United Kingdom isn't expected to launch until October

I am concerned this all but confirms the rumours that UK will be getting a massively different version of the Network as part of a concession to the hugely powerful Sky TV over here. In some places I've read rumours that Sky TV will actually host the UK's WWE Network, and will run it like a 24/7 TV channel (a'la Manchester United's TV channel), and will only host a greatly scaled back online content (drastically less than the US Version every show/ppv from WWE/WCW/ECW etc). I'd also read that ppv's won't be included in the WWE Network in the UK so Sky still get their cut of that revenue. unlike everywhere else

All rumour and supposition of course, but I do think today's news all but confirms the UK WWE Network will be a different offering to the rest of the world. I really hope all the rumours about it being massively shitter (as a concession to the all-powerful Sky/Murdoch family) are false though. Will feel seriously cheesed off if we only get a shadow of the service everyone else gets...

This is pretty much exactly what is going to happen in Canada with Rogers, so yeah I think there's a fair chance a similar deal is made in the UK with Sky.

[Robareid]

If they're having a PPV channel for it in UK and Canada, what about all the archive footage and stuff? Will we not get any of that?

[ROHWorld_Harry]

Of interest to us UK fans is that the US Version of the WWE Network has been confirmed as having a targeted August 2014 launch in approx. 170 countries - but the United Kingdom isn't expected to launch until October

I am concerned this all but confirms the rumours that UK will be getting a massively different version of the Network as part of a concession to the hugely powerful Sky TV over here. In some places I've read rumours that Sky TV will actually host the UK's WWE Network, and will run it like a 24/7 TV channel (a'la Manchester United's TV channel), and will only host a greatly scaled back online content (drastically less than the US Version every show/ppv from WWE/WCW/ECW etc). I'd also read that ppv's won't be included in the WWE Network in the UK so Sky still get their cut of that revenue. unlike everywhere else

All rumour and supposition of course, but I do think today's news all but confirms the UK WWE Network will be a different offering to the rest of the world. I really hope all the rumours about it being massively shitter (as a concession to the all-powerful Sky/Murdoch family) are false though. Will feel seriously cheesed off if we only get a shadow of the service everyone else gets...

I'd reccomend just subscribing to the American one. I've had no issues with it at all since launch. I pay $10 USD per month for the Network, and $5 CAD per month for UnblockUs, which allows me to access it from any device. Works out at less than £9 per month.

[Burnside]

If they're having a PPV channel for it in UK and Canada, what about all the archive footage and stuff? Will we not get any of that?

You'll get some on-demand content as you would with most premium channels, but dramatically less than you'd get with the online version of the network.

[supersonic]

Apparently Bryan Alvarez got a text last night saying the number as of a few days ago is 690K. That's a drop of 10K in a month.

My theory: worst supercard in months happened in the past 30 days, not just going in on paper, but in execution as well.

[Vince's Midget]

I don't watch WWE or TNA by choice. The only weekly dose of wrestling, I willing give myself and enjoy watching is Ring of Honour

I'm in the same boat pretty much with the exception of catching Pac and Generico when they're on NXT. I'm more than happy just watching better organizations like ROH, PWG, DGUSA/Evolve and New Japan.

[JTCole]

Meltzer reports that WWE has been able to break even with the cuts they made. About 55 office employees were let go.

[trufreedom]

Wait a god damn minute here.

Does that mean that WWE will be moving to Rogers Sportsnet in Canada? Or, much more insidiously, do you have to be a Rogers' Cable customer to buy the WWE Netwrok/WWE PPVs?

And in either case WHY!?! TSN is seen in far more homes than Sportsnet... far more. It's not even close. And Rogers' Cable isn't available in all areas.

Does anyone else feel like ROH took a few steps up the ladder by default this week? Or, more accurately, suddenly found themselves climbing a shorter ladder.

[supersonic]

I don't watch WWE or TNA by choice. The only weekly dose of wrestling, I willing give myself and enjoy watching is Ring of Honour

I'm in the same boat pretty much with the exception of catching Pac and Generico when they're on NXT. I'm more than happy just watching better organizations like ROH, PWG, DGUSA/Evolve and New Japan.

ELLE OH ELLE