Boo!
Dennis Stamp
Posts: 4,417
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Post by Boo! on Jul 31, 2014 12:53:58 GMT -5
I read a recap of the earning call and apparently they confirmed that the international versions of the network will be indentical to the US version so just have to wait and see how that plays out Well that is possibly nonsense, Sky (Murdoch) are extremely tough deal breakers and they are all about exclusive rights (along with their main rival BT Sport), chances are you probably have to have Sky Digital to access the WWE Network (which is like £40/£50 month as it is) I'd guess on it being a stripped down localised version But that'd make no sense from anyone's point of view. If it was a stripped down version Sky wouldn't get anything from it. WWE one of their most popular 'sporting' programmes, so for them to allow the WWE to launch the Network without Sky being involved at all would be very unlike them. Unless it carried programming that Sky had the rights to (PPVs and TV shows) then WWE would have no reason to get Sky involved at all if it was just archive material. There's no way Sky will allow WWE to launch this without their involvement and they cannot be involved unless they agree to share content. Sky have no say over WWE's back catalogue so, if as you suggest it's a scaled down version, there'd be no reason for Sky to be involved at all. Everything with Sky's battle with BT for subscribers suggest they're far more likely to ensure the WWE network is 'must have' for fans and wangle a way of having, as you say, a Sky subscription is a prerequisite for subscribing. You're right that it will be exclusive for Sky customers, that's a given really. Which indicates rights for TV shows and live PPVs will be shared.
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Boo!
Dennis Stamp
Posts: 4,417
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Post by Boo! on Jul 31, 2014 12:59:52 GMT -5
I think the 19.95 thing is mostly so people can just order Mania or the Rumble or whatever for a cheaper price, with WWE hoping that they enjoy the Network during that month and subscribe. Yeah it's surprising this wasn't done from the start. I think they should go further and offer 3 month subscriptions too at a rate of say $14.95 per month 1 month - $19.95 3 month $14.95 (pcm, $44.85 total) 6 month $9.99 (pcm, $59.94 total) and maybe even special 12 month packages for a special $7.99 per month for those who commit to it.
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Steveweiser
Dalek
Mickie Mickie You're So Fine... Hey Mickie!
THE GRAPS
Posts: 50,249
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Post by Steveweiser on Jul 31, 2014 13:18:38 GMT -5
The Canadian setup is supposedly only being done in Canada, which seems to suggest that the UK will get a model very similar to the US. There's still time for the full details to be worked out.
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Post by joeiscool on Jul 31, 2014 13:24:33 GMT -5
hmm This isn't really that bad, all the way around.
I don't plan on getting rid the network until at least next year, so 10.00 is still pretty dope.
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Post by joeiscool on Jul 31, 2014 13:41:40 GMT -5
You don't want to sign up for 6 months? How about one month at double the price?!?! It's actually really smart. If you only wanna watch the big 4 ppvs a year it's $80 vs $120 for a whole year...
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Post by TheSchattenjager on Jul 31, 2014 13:48:44 GMT -5
Wow, wrestling fans are cheap. 20 bucks is nothing. You drop 20 bucks every time you turn around.
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Boo!
Dennis Stamp
Posts: 4,417
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Post by Boo! on Jul 31, 2014 13:53:12 GMT -5
The days of the 'off-season' need to end. They can't afford to have the slack post-WM/post-Summerslam slumps any more. It should have occurred to them before that if you're asking people to commit to 6 months you can't just provide them with 1 month of gripping storyline and then take your foot off the gas for the next 5.
I think they need to reinstate the 'big 5' with Rumble, Mania and Summerslam being as they are with KOTR being a special four-hour tournament and Survivor Series being promoted again. As it stands with the big 3 there's simply too much 'downtime' between Mania and SS and then SS to the Rumble.
I'd also add non-PPV WWE Exclusive 'special events' throughout the year. Two-hour shows with three or four matches on them that act in a similar way to what SNME used to way back in the day where angles are started to be continued on TV before culminating on PPV. December would be a good time for this as it sets up the Rumble build-up nicely.
The cycle could be
January - Big PPV (RR) February - B-show March - Big PPV (WM) April - B-show May - B-show + WWE Network special 2 hour event June - Big PPV (KOTR) July - B-show August - Big PPV (SS) October - B-show November - Big PPV (Survivor Series) December - B-Show + WWE Network special 2 hour event
That way whichever way a 6 month commitment is sliced you're getting a decent share of 'it matters' television.
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Boo!
Dennis Stamp
Posts: 4,417
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Post by Boo! on Jul 31, 2014 13:53:41 GMT -5
Wow, wrestling fans are cheap. 20 bucks is nothing. You drop 20 bucks every time you turn around. I'd buy new trousers mate
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Jul 31, 2014 13:57:27 GMT -5
One scary stat that hasn't really been brought up - of the 667k who subscribed to the Network for WrestleMania, 19.2% of them (128k) cancelled the Network. So nearly one in five subscribers were just looking for a cheap way to get WrestleMania, and then pull out at the earliest opportunity. That doesn't bode well for August 24th and beyond, when renewals come up. or 1 in 5 people had crap internet and couldn't use the network?
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andrew8798
FANatic
on 24/7 this month
Posts: 106,081
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Post by andrew8798 on Jul 31, 2014 14:01:05 GMT -5
dave
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.
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Boo!
Dennis Stamp
Posts: 4,417
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Post by Boo! on Jul 31, 2014 14:03:35 GMT -5
One scary stat that hasn't really been brought up - of the 667k who subscribed to the Network for WrestleMania, 19.2% of them (128k) cancelled the Network. So nearly one in five subscribers were just looking for a cheap way to get WrestleMania, and then pull out at the earliest opportunity. That doesn't bode well for August 24th and beyond, when renewals come up. or 1 in 5 people had crap internet and couldn't use the network? I've read before about people who live in the US outside the big cities and in some of the more rural states having appalling internet service. The size of the country makes the problem insurmountable in many ways, at least from WWE's point of view. The problem is, apparently, that the industry was deregulated too fast and now it's a situation where the big companies have monopolies and there's no financial incentive to invest or legal obligation to expand coverage.
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Marty McFry
Don Corleone
"She was mine before she was yours.... Wooooo"
Posts: 1,657
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Post by Marty McFry on Jul 31, 2014 14:11:37 GMT -5
So am I understanding this right?...
International markets supposedly get 'identical' Network to the US version, while Canada gets a pay channel?
That really sucks if that's true.
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Post by Zaq "That Guy" Buzzkill on Jul 31, 2014 14:24:36 GMT -5
So am I understanding this right?... International markets supposedly get 'identical' Network to the US version, while Canada gets a pay channel? That really sucks if that's true. As far as I can tell, we'll get a preview in the form of a channel, then also get it on demand or something like that. Either way I can't help but feel we're getting shafted here. f***ing Rogers.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Jul 31, 2014 14:33:40 GMT -5
I like how when the network launched Triple H was all like "Vince actually turned down the cable companies. they had a contract ready to go for the network and he teared it up because the internet is the future" guess that doesn't apply to Canada
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Marty McFry
Don Corleone
"She was mine before she was yours.... Wooooo"
Posts: 1,657
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Post by Marty McFry on Jul 31, 2014 14:46:36 GMT -5
Wade Keller on his hotline is saying "Canada has gone to being jealous of the network, to being whatever is the opposite of jealous"
I don't see how that's true.
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Post by Pillman's Pencil on Jul 31, 2014 14:49:01 GMT -5
I like how when the network launched Triple H was all like "Vince actually turned down the cable companies. they had a contract ready to go for the network and he teared it up because the internet is the future" guess that doesn't apply to Canada Or the UK, because Sky will almost definitely be involved and you'll need to pay a monthly fee anyway for that.
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Steveweiser
Dalek
Mickie Mickie You're So Fine... Hey Mickie!
THE GRAPS
Posts: 50,249
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Post by Steveweiser on Jul 31, 2014 14:49:01 GMT -5
Dave Meltzer reporting on Observer Radio that they've actually lost 10,000 subscribers in July, and are currently at 690,000 subscribers.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Jul 31, 2014 16:15:38 GMT -5
Wow, wrestling fans are cheap. 20 bucks is nothing. You drop 20 bucks every time you turn around. $20 on top of TV service plans or internet fees isn't cheap. I see the whole "who can't afford $10?!" opinion said on here a bit along with other places so I assume it's younger people saying it (not holding their own bills in a hard economic time), so $20 for one month just seems baffling to me, certainly not acceptable for a one month fee. Some of us have to budget, and some of us aren't so willing to go over budget for things if they start to have crappy service. I mean, I'm tired of PPVs falling off the air on my end on multiple pieces of technology, so I'm not renewing (I did so for Wrestlemania initially, I regret that now given the 6 month obligation). Certainly not shoving down $20 for one month to watch a PPV I know full well won't completely work. Add in a janky crap video player for the non-live things and...no dice. It's not worth $10 to me, not when I'm paying all the bills in a household. $20 is a lot of money when you spend $1000+ on rent & bills as it is.
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Post by Famous Rocking Chimes on Jul 31, 2014 16:33:44 GMT -5
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Jul 31, 2014 16:50:50 GMT -5
These on demand subscription services really aren't as good in hindsight as I though they were going to be. It's getting to a point where every thing will have its own service soon and its going to cost alot to have all these different subscriptions. It's going to get ridiculous with the niches covered too
Right now I pay
$10 a month for Marvel Unlimited £6 a month for netflix $10 a month for WWE Network $10 a month for Hulu £6 a month for Now TV £8 a month for lovefilm by post £30 a year for Prime Instant Video (though I'd have this anyway for the next day shipping, and I get it cheaper than usual)
I mean thats more than a pay TV package, i'm not too concerned though as I get a much better variety of content, with no adverts, whenever I want. But say a few more services I'm interested in launch then I have to start making hard decisions
If I had to choose one thing to get rid of it would be the WWE Network and that might be the case at the end of this 6 months. All the other services offer much more value for money because of the variety of content.
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