New Network subscription numbers/Free April

[Deleted]

WWE ANNOUNCES 1.3 MILLION NETWORK SUBSCRIBERS
WWE announced that it has a total of 1,315,000 subscribers on the WWE Network. The company hit the one million mark in January after the
Network went live in the United Kingdom and thanks to the interest in the Royal Rumble.

The Network started with 495,000 subscribers, then increased to 667,000, 700,000, 731,000, 816,000, and 1,001,000, before reaching the
1.3 million mark. It’s estimated for Q1 2015 they will have an average 918,000 paid subscribers. For WrestleMania XXX, WWE had 667,000 on April 7, 2014, and the 1.3 million number for WrestleMania 31 represents a 97% increase.

George Barrios, WWE’s Chief Financial & Strategy Officer said that out of the around 200,000 free subscriptions in February, 77% of them converted to a paid subscription. The company also announced that April will be free for new WWE Network subscribers and that will include the Extreme rules pay-per-view.

WWE STOCKS SINK AFTER LATEST NETWORK SUBSCRIBER COUNT
- Following a successful WrestleMania, record breaking gate, and 1.3 million subscribers to the WWE Network, Wall Street was still not happy and drove WWE stocks 15% in the red.

Just like what happened last year when the company announced the WWE Network subscribers count the day after Mania, investors were quick to sell off immediately as the news hit that “only” 1.3 million subs have the WWE Network. Last year, stocks went down more than 15%, nearly 50% to be exact. Stocks closed the day at $14.09, a 14.74% decrease over Friday’s closing. Stocks hit a day low of $13.75 after opening at $17.44.

[Saul Goodman]

Another free month? We should all cancel and come back every time it is free since it seems like it is free every other month.

[Vice honcho room temperature]

Apr 1, 2015 12:08:35 GMT -5 Saul Goodman said:

Another free month? We should all cancel and come back every time it is free since it seems like it is free every other month.

f*** it I might just do that

[Mayonnaise]

Yeah, doing one month after the last is damned annoying. I can get every four to six months but not this.

[67 more]

Already locked in for a year, so meh, but cool.

[cjh]

Apr 1, 2015 14:36:04 GMT -5 67 more said:

Already locked in for a year, so meh, but cool.

You're not supposed to be.  They dropped all commitments several months ago, so you should be able to cancel whenever you want.

For some reason, I'm still able to access the Network even though I canceled a few days ago, and my account info reflects it by saying the last day of my subscription is April 1 (today).  Is it normal to have access throughout that last date, or should my access have ended as soon the day changed at midnight last night?

[Deleted]

Aren't the free months only for new customers? Surely they check people's addresses and not just email addresses to avoid loopholes like this?

[Vice honcho room temperature]

Apr 1, 2015 15:39:16 GMT -5 cjh said:

Apr 1, 2015 14:36:04 GMT -5 67 more said:

Already locked in for a year, so meh, but cool.

You're not supposed to be.  They dropped all commitments several months ago, so you should be able to cancel whenever you want.

They did have the x-mas promotion where you get a Roku stick for buying a year's subscription

[JCBaggee]

Free months are only for new subscribers, so I don't think it applies if you ever had a subscription. Either way, it's getting ridiculous. What do the people who have kept paid accounts all this time get?

[Mayonnaise]

Apr 1, 2015 18:31:44 GMT -5 JCBaggee said:

Free months are only for new subscribers, so I don't think it applies if you ever had a subscription. Either way, it's getting ridiculous. What do the people who have kept paid accounts all this time get?

I got a free TShirt.

[Magic knows Black Lives Matter]

I don't know about anybody else but I was able to take advantage of both free months by just letting my subscription go and renewing it later. Practically abusing the system, I know, but the struggle is real.

[Andrew is Good]

They do seem to be going nuts with the free month thing. I think a free month is a good idea from time to time, but they have to figure out the best times to make them. February, no question, best time for a free month. I think they could have a second free month in October maybe, but not like it is now. I just don't think it makes sense financially.

[onejay]

They should really attempt at trying to stop the free month thing, okay it may have worked out well in turning the free month users into actual subscribers.
But if they do continue to do it month after month, they need to do something to the people who have been loyal subscribers since the early days of the network.

[lildude8218]

They should just offer one free month to new subscribers.

[Oh Cry Me a Screwball]

Apr 1, 2015 19:13:23 GMT -5 Andrew is Good said:

They do seem to be going nuts with the free month thing. I think a free month is a good idea from time to time, but they have to figure out the best times to make them. February, no question, best time for a free month. I think they could have a second free month in October maybe, but not like it is now. I just don't think it makes sense financially.

I think the logic behind this one is to keep people that were going to cancel after Wrestlemania on the books for another month, and hope that they forget to cancel again, or decide to become permanent subscribers.

Yeah, it's supposed to be for new subscribers, but they know people will just sign up with a new account again.

["Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay]

Is 1.3 million subscribers really that bad a number, or is this entirely WWE shooting themselves in the foot by dreaming big?

I'd say that when your Monday Night ratings are in the 4-5 million range and you get 25% of that audience to literally pay money to watch your product, you're doing pretty f***ing good.

[Deleted]

Apr 2, 2015 4:13:18 GMT -5 "Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay said:

Is 1.3 million subscribers really that bad a number, or is this entirely WWE shooting themselves in the foot by dreaming big?

I'd say that when your Monday Night ratings are in the 4-5 million range and you get 25% of that audience to literally pay money to watch your product, you're doing pretty f***ing good.

The Network now has as many subscribers as the biggest WrestleMania had PPV buys. It's a pretty successful venture but the 9.99 thing means they need more. I think, in a year, it has done well.

[bluemeii]

Apr 2, 2015 4:13:18 GMT -5 "Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay said:

Is 1.3 million subscribers really that bad a number, or is this entirely WWE shooting themselves in the foot by dreaming big?

I'd say that when your Monday Night ratings are in the 4-5 million range and you get 25% of that audience to literally pay money to watch your product, you're doing pretty f***ing good.

Honestly I think it's reached it's saturation point in terms of subs. Don't look at it as 25 percent of the audience. Think of it in households. The average household has 2.8 people in it. Just going off the last full report I think they said there were 850K US subs out of the just over 1 million. Increase the ratio with the 1.3 million subs now and you are talking about over 1 million US network subscribers. You could call that 1 million US households, as I doubt there are many of them with multiple accounts signed up.

If we call everything in the last paragraph reasonable and assume 4 million is the average RAW audience, you are talking about over 66 percent of your RAW households with a network sub. (4 million/2.8 people per household is around 1.45 million households).

Point being is they have about gone as far as they can in getting people watching RAW now to subscribe. Now they need to get more people to invest in watching it. Or accept this is about the US limit for subs and plan accordingly and concentrate on overseas markets.

[Mayonnaise]

Apr 7, 2015 22:35:50 GMT -5 bluemeii said:

Apr 2, 2015 4:13:18 GMT -5 "Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay said:

Is 1.3 million subscribers really that bad a number, or is this entirely WWE shooting themselves in the foot by dreaming big?

I'd say that when your Monday Night ratings are in the 4-5 million range and you get 25% of that audience to literally pay money to watch your product, you're doing pretty f***ing good.

Honestly I think it's reached it's saturation point in terms of subs. Don't look at it as 25 percent of the audience. Think of it in households. The average household has 2.8 people in it. Just going off the last full report I think they said there were 850K US subs out of the just over 1 million. Increase the ratio with the 1.3 million subs now and you are talking about over 1 million US network subscribers. You could call that 1 million US households, as I doubt there are many of them with multiple accounts signed up.

If we call everything in the last paragraph reasonable and assume 4 million is the average RAW audience, you are talking about over 66 percent of your RAW households with a network sub. (4 million/2.8 people per household is around 1.45 million households).

Point being is they have about gone as far as they can in getting people watching RAW now to subscribe. Now they need to get more people to invest in watching it. Or accept this is about the US limit for subs and plan accordingly and concentrate on overseas markets.

This includes most major international markets and has for awhile.

[bluemeii]

Apr 7, 2015 23:02:01 GMT -5 Mayonnaise said:

Apr 7, 2015 22:35:50 GMT -5 bluemeii said:

Honestly I think it's reached it's saturation point in terms of subs. Don't look at it as 25 percent of the audience. Think of it in households. The average household has 2.8 people in it. Just going off the last full report I think they said there were 850K US subs out of the just over 1 million. Increase the ratio with the 1.3 million subs now and you are talking about over 1 million US network subscribers. You could call that 1 million US households, as I doubt there are many of them with multiple accounts signed up.

If we call everything in the last paragraph reasonable and assume 4 million is the average RAW audience, you are talking about over 66 percent of your RAW households with a network sub. (4 million/2.8 people per household is around 1.45 million households).

Point being is they have about gone as far as they can in getting people watching RAW now to subscribe. Now they need to get more people to invest in watching it. Or accept this is about the US limit for subs and plan accordingly and concentrate on overseas markets.

This includes most major international markets and has for awhile.

I understand all that, but my point is that US saturation has almost been reached and they would be served better by pushing the network more in overseas countries. I touched on that in the first paragraph when I was addressing the US subs in comparison to the overall number. It's why even with a 23 percent increase in overall subs compared to the last report, the stock still managed to drop 15 percent in one day. Long term investors are starting to see the lack of US growth potential and a correction sell off occurred.