America is full of cheapskates

[Deleted]

A majority of WWE fans are just casual fans. They tried to get casual fans to sign up, but failed.

Also, since their primary market is children, they failed to realize that kids do not have credit cards, and can't sign up for the service.

Marketing themselves to college kids would be the smartest idea.

[xCompackx]

Jun 30, 2014 8:24:29 GMT -5 Mecca said:

Jun 30, 2014 8:15:48 GMT -5 amaron said:

I know that a lot of people are waiting for the rest of the RAW and Nitro episodes to be added.

But on the same token why would you add it all at once? Then someone could sign up once watch all they wanted and cancel as opposed to slowly adding it.

It's really a Catch-22. You're right that it doesn't make business to add it all at once. The best way is to slowly (very slowly, apparently) add new episodes. But at the same time, they need those episodes up to keep people interested. Old PPVs are only going to satisfy people for so long before they get bored.

[Hit Girl]

Jun 29, 2014 9:24:37 GMT -5 Professor Chaos said:

$9.99 a month for the new PPV's alone is a steal let alone everything else you get. It's utterly ridiculous that WWE Network is flopping.

It depends whether people regard modern day PPV's as worth watching. The matches might be good, but from a storyline perspective, you could just read the results and track down the good bits and miss virtually nothing. RAW keeps you up to date on most things. As for the archive, older fans would have seen it all before. They may not want to watch it all again, if indeed they have the time. Plus, it's depressing anyway. It would simply remind me of how much better it was back in the day

[Deleted]

Jun 30, 2014 14:33:38 GMT -5 Famous Rocking Chimes said:

Am I the only one who doesn't get why the current product determines whether or not someone buys the Network or not? I bought it purely for the archive material and while I do watch the live PPVs I don't really give a toss about whether the current product is good when it pertains to the Network.

Different people have different reasons why they want it - for some, they might not use the archives at all and are just interested in the new stuff. For me though, I mostly watched the archives and loved getting to see random old PPVs I'd never watched before (though a lot of them were terrible), but when I'm dissatisfied with WWE, I generally don't want to see any wrestling period for awhile.

[Deleted]

Or maybe some people just don't want it.

[JCBaggee]

Honestly, I feel like it's the "six month commitment" that's hurting them. People love Netflix and Hulu because it's just $9-ish a month, no questions asked. The six month commitment thing makes it feel a little leery. People love a la carte, they don't want to be locked down.

[thecrusherwi]

I think there's many problems. First off, they overestimated their fan base (as usual). This is a hardcore fan's product. They have 4 million people a week watching Raw and built a network that needed at least 25% of them to buy the network to make money. That's insane. For somewhat of a comparison, some estimates are as high as 100 million+ individual people watch at least one NFL game per week, yet only 2 million people purchase NFL Sunday Ticket (and how many of those are probably bars and restaurants). Much higher price point I know but it gives you an idea how hard it is to make people pay for a product they normally get for free.

Secondly, their tape library has far less replay value than they think. I love watching that old stuff, but I've had access to the stuff I care about for years through my own personal collection that I've been building since I was 10 years old. And whenever I watch my old stuff, I have to put it in some kind of context. If I just show stuff in any old loosely associated order like WWE Network seems to do, I lose all context and then I rapidly lose interest.

Finally, they need tons more original content. There is just SO much wrestling on there. Now before you say "DUH!", think about this: what is something you almost never see aired on NFL Network or MLB Network?: Old Games. Much to the chagrin of collectors like me, the sports networks almost never show classic games in full. They show them as highlights or documentaries or top ten lists. Why? Because no one wants to watch the old games. Super Bowls from the 1970s look amazing on NFL Films with A narrator and orchestra music. The actual original TV broadcast feed has a lower production value than high school sports televised on your local MyNetwork station. It is far less dramatic and only interesting to the hardcore fans of history. I know this is true of wrestling. I showed WrestleMania III to a friend who had only saw highlights. He was expecting a great show. Instead, he thought it was dark, slow paced and boring with shitty production value. The great wrestling, like a great 70s NFL game, was lost in that packaging. WWE needs more of those NFL Films style programs. I know they have some of that now, but they have to find more original ways to use their tape library other than "Here it is.....find what you want and watch it......see ya later"

They're kind of in no mans land right now. Most of what's on the network is stuff casuals don't care to see and stuff the hardcores have been able to see since before the network existed. They need to either A) make more unique content or B) just go nuts on the depth of the library. If they want a hardcore like me to stick around long term, make every weekly show from every company library they own available and I'll subscribe til the day I die. If it's just gonna be old ppvs, sorry but TheCrusher Network has been running those in his living room on demand for years.

[Boo!]

It should have been a worldwide expansion at the start. It's the only hope they had, now the thing might die before it even gets to the stage of a international roll-out.

[thelonewolf527]

Jul 1, 2014 5:57:01 GMT -5 JCBaggee said:

Honestly, I feel like it's the "six month commitment" that's hurting them. People love Netflix and Hulu because it's just $9-ish a month, no questions asked. The six month commitment thing makes it feel a little leery. People love a la carte, they don't want to be locked down.

Cuz then people would spend 20 bucks to get Mania and the Rumble and stream everything else

[Vice honcho room temperature]

Jun 30, 2014 14:50:59 GMT -5 Dave the Dave said:

it is a good deal. But the current wwe ppv isn't worth $10 to me. I've watch all the wcw ppv from 96 to 2000. If I get through ecw before the end of August when it runs out, I'm out.

I wanted for nostalgia, I got that. Call me when Nitro and Saturday Nights are added.

They'll start adding Nitros I suspect when they get to that point in Raw history.

[Blindkarevik]

Really, the only selling point to hit all fronts are the monthly PPVs.

It caters to casual fans, people who just got into it, people who have always watched, old school people who like to keep up on it, and everything in between.

Everything else is VERY niche.

Technological and contractual limitations and problems kept this from happening 10 years ago, but if it had.... I think there'd be a LOT more subscribers. Only reason I say that is, most people who signed up early, heard "Every PPV will be available at launch..... Including ECW AND WCW!" Suddenly, we could re-watch all old WCW PPVs.... see if it really was as good or bad as we remember it. WE could relive the glory days of ECW. It was awesome...but, we're a wrestling fan's generation removed from all that. People who are just starting out watching now, never watched WCW, don't care about it, and have no real desire to watch any of it... so that selling point is completely lost on them.

Stuff like NXT is awesome, one of the things I love about it most, is also a big problem to a causal fan. I love that it has a bit of an indy feel.... they throw shit at a wall to see what sticks with gimmicks, attempt to get everyone over with the crowd, and try to build up everybody together. It has a great look and feel, the matches can be absolutely incredible... but, there are a lot of casual fans who will see a tiny arena, nobody they've ever heard of, and just not have a desire to watch.

The shows like Legends House, Countdown, and the like.... VERY niche. If I watch them, cool... if not, no loss. There is no real NEED to watch. I enjoy them, but they won't entice people to order the network.

I have no idea how to fix the subscriber problem, or even if there is a quick and easy fix.... but those who haven't ordered may not be cheap as much as they just don't see anything they like. Hell, having the PPVs for ten bucks a month is an awesome deal.... but, Summerslam, Royal Rumble and Wrestlemania are really the only "must-see" PPVs of the year. I have a feeling there will be a spike in subscribers around Rumble season.... but up until then, it'll have a major ebb and flow but always seem to be hanging on by a thread.

[angryfan]

I bought and taped every PPV from mid 1995 until 2001, so that's big chunk of time that paying for the network would make no sense to me. Sure I'd love the older stuff that I don't have, but that's all I would be paying for.

The new stuff, about 70 percent of the time, means nothing to me and I don't care about it. I liked D Bryan Danielson, but he was never the focal point of his angle, and it felt like 2004. I like The Shield and saw them as a great group that reminded me of old school stables, so let's break them up and hope that one of them becomes the next top star and the other two can, um...do stuff. I thought Nexus was a great way to get a bunch of young guys over, make a few of them main eventers and the rest upper-midcard. What we got was far from that. I think Wyatt has a unique character, I think he could be a top heel for a very long time, but we can't have him beat anyone on the roster because heroes always win, so let's bring Jericho back so HE can finally put Wyatt over.

I love so many of the guys' work, but even if Ric Flair says no one can possibly know where an angle is going especially not some internet nerd like me, I see the same patterns over and over and over again, and I just don't give a damn. SO, no, I'll stick with my VHS tapes, borrowed DVD's, and I'll catch a match online if it's got people in it I want to see. I'll save my money, because I don't have that much of it to start with.

[Professor Chaos]

Jul 1, 2014 5:09:24 GMT -5 @rainbowrandy said:

Or maybe some people just don't want it.

Which I don't understand when RAW and Smackdown are basically just commercials for the next PPV. Now that they basically give the PPV'S away plus a lot of other stuff makes no sense to me why over 4 million watch RAW every week and only 600K have the Network. It's a great setup and is probably gonna be ruined by cheapasses that won't pay $9.99 a month.

[wahoowah11]

The way I see it, you are doing yourself a disservice if you dont have the network. I personally think that 10 dollars is a steal, I would pay as much as 15 dollars a month for it. I budget it in every month as part of my entertainment money.

[Dave the Dave]

Some of the people who watch RAW do it casually. My dad watches Raw every week.He's never watched a WWE PPV or Smackdown. Teaching this 55 year old to use the network would suck.

He watches wrestling Monday because it's just something ya do. He's not into it enough to get the network and asks me what happens at the PPV. He doesn't have Netflix either. It's just not on his radar.

(this is just trying to explain why RAW has so many viewers compared to network buys)

[The Dark Order Inferno]

Jun 30, 2014 1:59:00 GMT -5 Professor Chaos said:

It's a great deal to me. Shame people that can't fork out 10 bucks a month are gonna cause it to die.

I don't think it'll die, but it will become more expensive and scaled down. The WWE can't scrap it as easily as they could the XFL or WBF as they've cannibalised a large portion of their business to get the network off the ground and there's no turning back from that, people aren't going to return to paying $40 a month plus for ppvs in the numbers they were pre-network and they burned their bridges with the ppv carriers so would get less than favourable terms should they come crawling back.

[willywonka666]

I haven't subscribed. Everyone here probably knows by now I only care about the 80s mainly and back. As far as I know they are still letting things out little by little, but this shit with the countdowns and stuff-Screw it. I have access to many things I want thanks to youtube.

I'm not your average viewer/fan though.

[phen0m2112]

Jun 29, 2014 11:17:46 GMT -5 Spider2024 said:

I'll sell you these for 10 bucks.

Only if they were used in-ring by this man:

[Hawk Hart]

This thread title reminded me of Lana promo.

[Deleted]

Jul 1, 2014 8:27:00 GMT -5 Boo! said:

It should have been a worldwide expansion at the start. It's the only hope they had, now the thing might die before it even gets to the stage of a international roll-out.

The odd thing is that I've heard people on here (quoting actual sources/numbers so not pulled out of the air) saying that 1/3 of all Network subscribers ARE outside the United States already.

It's not a good sign, but frankly I guess the company knew they'd never get near what they projected, it was just there to do some stock magic. Whether that failed or not I have no clue as I have no interest in WWE stock/business but yeah, a LOT of subscribers are outside the US already which might worry the company.