• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

WWE Network gains 33k new subscribers since Wrestlemania (Q2 results)

Status
Not open for further replies.

RP912

Banned
Attitude Era had a lot of garbage. Ruthless Aggression era was better.



Yep....that 2002-03 roster though 0_0.

I never understood the appeal of the attitude era. It consists of the most forgettable matches beyond the usual main event stars, the most crude and obnoxious segments, bad storylines, and nonstop boobs, dick jokes, and etc.


It was fucking gross honestly compared to the ruthless aggression era where the matches were memorable, the segments were deeper, and the women's division was somewhat on par with the knockout division.



Tim White's segments>>>>>>choppy choppy pee pee :/
 
They are selling this network like Cena sells moves.

WWE network plugs on RAW have become more of a running joke then a marketing campaign.
 

bigkrev

Member
The network is fine. If they went back to some dated model, I'd just never watch any wrestling again.

It's the right idea, but the execution isn't there. Barely any original content, missing all of the actual things people would want it for outside of PPVs, and no added features at all in a goddamn half year. It also doesn't help that every PPV since Wrestlemania has been the drizzling shits.

Apart from Battleground, which PPVs were "drizzling shits"?
Because I'm digging deep in the Observer archives this morning, here is the feedback numbers for the post-WM PPVs
WWE EXTREME RULES FEEDBACK

Thumbs up 160 (70.8%)

Thumbs down 19 (08.4%)

In the middle 47 (20.8%)

BEST MATCH POLL

The Shield vs. Evolution 216

WWE PAYBACK POLL RESULTS

Thumbs up 156 (91.2%)

Thumbs down 7 (04.1%)

In the middle 8 (04.7%)

BEST MATCH POLL

John Cena vs. Bray Wyatt 112

The Shield vs. Evolution 54

WWE MONEY IN THE BANK PPV POLL RESULTS

Thumbs up 199 (84.3%)

Thumbs down 14 (05.9%)

Thumbs in the middle 23 (09.7%)

BEST MATCH POLL

Money in the Bank ladder match 178

WWE title ladder match 28

Usos vs. Harper & Rowan 17

I'd argue that until Battleground, this was probably the best PPV quality year ever for WWE, as WM and Elimination Chamber were both incredible shows
 
I posted this in the other thread and I don't care:



You are fucking kidding me WWE.... your only going to make it a fucking TV channel for FUCKING ROGERS!?

Fuck this company.

Wait:



THATS why. Fuck the bullshit CRTC.

I think the CRTC is only involved in the channel part? AFAIK no one needs approval to bring their app to Canada?
 

mreddie

Member
Apart from Battleground, which PPVs were "drizzling shits"?
Because I'm digging deep in the Observer archives this morning, here is the feedback numbers for the post-WM PPVs






I'd argue that until Battleground, this was probably the best PPV quality year ever for WWE, as WM and Elimination Chamber were both incredible shows

Rules was great, Payback felt like Rules 2 and their matches felt more "extreme" and MITB was good aside from Cena. Battleground really felt like a sequel hook to Summerslam, no tension, not showing a match, odd finishes.
 
Number will crash once 6 month commitment is up. They won't even be able to keep that 700k including worldwide
Yep. Wonder what the come back to me offers will be.



No new content. One of my worst fears about the Network has come true, that PPVs would just be a smidge above Raw quality since they don't have to sell the actual event. Battlegrounds proved it in spades.
 

Google

Member
and they need to have it include live RAW/SD broadcasts.

I've seen this a few times,

Why is it important that you have a live broadcast of your RAW/SD on WWE:N? Do you not have access to it on your cable box?

Hell, I've got access to live RAW/SD on my cable box, my providers iPad/Android/Web Apps, as well as hosted on their website for a few weeks after it's broadcast.

It's obviously a business decision they've taken. They wouldn't get the long, multi-year, expensive deals they're signing up. It's a boon for the broadcasters to have 'exclusivity' on this stuff and means they can push the price up without really impacting the viewers.
 
This is a pretty horrible number, but not entirely shocking - 24/7 aka Classics on Demand bombed at the end and that was only earlier this year. This is a better value than that was by a wide margin, but the original programming is what they're hanging their hat on with it beyond the legacy content and that's been sub-par.

NXT's live shows have been amazing, but they don't push them hard. They will however, push LEGENDS HOUSE to the nth degree despite them not even being able to sell that show to ANYONE in the 2 years since it was shot. Total Divas replays from a year ago get more hype than NXT, and they've sunk a lot of money into that show between Full Sail and the Performance Center that they'll never recoup via the Network due to how poorly they push it. Hell, Tyson Kidd is the TOP HEEL ON NXT and in the company's best-built program, and he was just a jobber on Main Event - a Network show as well. Which sure makes NXT seem like it means nothing.
 
I think the CRTC is only involved in the channel part? AFAIK no one needs approval to bring their app to Canada?

Nope, the CRTC regulates web broadcasters as well. It's the same reason our version of Netflix was so terrible for so long. I'll likely stick to just using a DNS masking service to get WWE Network if the CRTC/Rogers is pulling this bullshit.
 

bigkrev

Member
Rules was great, Payback felt like Rules 2 and their matches felt more "extreme" and MITB was good aside from Cena. Battleground really felt like a sequel hook to Summerslam, no tension, not showing a match, odd finishes.

I didn't put Elimination Chamber on that list (because it was the day before the Network launched), but that was also an incredible show as well with an insane Shield vs Wyatts match and a great Chamber
 

GaimeGuy

Volunteer Deputy Campaign Director, Obama for America '16
Yep....that 2002-03 roster though 0_0.

I never understood the appeal of the attitude era. It consists of the most forgettable matches beyond the usual main event stars, the most crude and obnoxious segments, bad storylines, and nonstop boobs, dick jokes, and etc.


It was fucking gross honestly compared to the ruthless aggression era where the matches were memorable, the segments were deeper, and the women's division was somewhat on par with the knockout division.



Tim White's segments>>>>>>choppy choppy pee pee :/

The attitude era gave us the faces of foley, the brothers of destruction, the ministry of darkness, the corporation, the corporate ministry, the brood, the NoD, DX 2.0, austin vs Mcmahon, The Radicalz, Chris Jericho in WWE, the rise of the TLC match (and some of the most memorable tag division feuds and matches with the hardys, dudleys, and Edge & Christian).

It was an era defined by Austin as the top guy, and saw the rise of The Rock, Mick Foley, Kurt Angle, HHH, Kane, The Hardy Boyz, Edge, Christian, and, in a way, Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, and Chris Jericho.

It moved the stable wars of the mid 1990s to the mid card and upper card, and saw an increase in the on-screen presence of the authority figure.
 
Nope, the CRTC regulates web broadcasters as well. It's the same reason our version of Netflix was so terrible for so long. I'll likely stick to just using a DNS masking service to get WWE Network if the CRTC/Rogers is pulling this bullshit.

I thought Netflix was bad for so long because there are different rights holders here than in the US for some content?... Just doesn't make sense or ring true to me. NBA, NHL, MLB, NFL, UFC all have their services running in Canada.
 

bigkrev

Member
*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.

Other notes from the conference call. Wonder what the hell they are doing to get the break even point that low
 

RP912

Banned
The attitude era gave us the faces of foley, the brothers of destruction, the ministry of darkness, the corporation, the corporate ministry, the brood, the NoD, DX 2.0, austin vs Mcmahon, The Radicalz, Chris Jericho in WWE, the rise of the TLC match (and some of the most memorable tag division feuds and matches with the hardys, dudleys, and Edge & Christian).

It was an era defined by Austin as the top guy, and saw the rise of The Rock, Mick Foley, Kurt Angle, HHH, Kane, The Hardy Boyz, Edge, Christian, and, in a way, Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, and Chris Jericho.

It moved the stable wars of the mid 1990s to the mid card and upper card, and saw an increase in the on-screen presence of the authority figure.

True those are some good contributions but the era always escaped me. Sure it had all of those things and the god tier tlc matches but the ruthless aggression era had the elimination chamber, money in the bank, evolution, once again that god tier 2003 roster, quality feuds such as edge/cena, orton/legends, angle/benoit, and eddy/rey. The only reason why the ruthless aggression era never get proper recognition is because of it being overshadowed by the attitude era which is unfortunate because of the underrated matches and segment produced from the era.


Then again I'm a wcw mark :p....so I just flicked back and forth between shows with my focus being on nitro ofcourse.
 

Lothar

Banned
I'm not going to order the Network for the current product because the current product is garbage. They don't make me interested in the storylines or the characters enough to even pay $10 a month. Usually I can't even make it through the 3 hour Raws.

I refuse to watch old footage if it has altered music. I really like entrances. It sets the tone for the match and if you're watching something old, it tells you who is liked and who is hated. The music and entrance tells you what their character was like without seeing them do anything. RVD comes out to some generic cowboy music in ECW on the network. You couldn't have picked anything more opposite. Jericho coming out to his WWE Walls in WCW makes his whole character in WCW come off as stupid.

It's actually a bigger deal than it sounds because changing the music in most cases changes the crowd. For example, if you go and watch a RVD entrance from ECW, now he comes out to silence from the crowd. RVD at the time was a phenomenon in ECW. You lose a big part of that if you remove his entrance where the ECW fans were worshipping him and would sing along to his theme. I hope no one is experiencing ECW for the first time through that.
 
Apart from Battleground, which PPVs were "drizzling shits"?
Because I'm digging deep in the Observer archives this morning, here is the feedback numbers for the post-WM PPVs






I'd argue that until Battleground, this was probably the best PPV quality year ever for WWE, as WM and Elimination Chamber were both incredible shows
I liked a lot of MITB until the boring ending. Killed the whole show for me. Payback and Extreme Rules were like Raws with a Shield vs Evolution match to keep it more interesting.
 
I thought Netflix was bad for so long because there are different rights holders here than in the US for some content?... Just doesn't make sense or ring true to me. NBA, NHL, MLB, NFL, UFC all have their services running in Canada.

That was part of it, part of it was that the CRTC was forcing Netflix to meet the same CanCon levels of TV networks, which doesn't begin to make sense for that service (it doesn't make sense for televison anymore either but that's a different discussion).
 
I've seen this a few times,

Why is it important that you have a live broadcast of your RAW/SD on WWE:N? Do you not have access to it on your cable box?

Hell, I've got access to live RAW/SD on my cable box, my providers iPad/Android/Web Apps, as well as hosted on their website for a few weeks after it's broadcast.

It's obviously a business decision they've taken. They wouldn't get the long, multi-year, expensive deals they're signing up. It's a boon for the broadcasters to have 'exclusivity' on this stuff and means they can push the price up without really impacting the viewers.
People don't have cable anymore. They want options relevant to how they watch TV now.

I understand the business ideas behind it, but it feels like an antiquated model to keep full Raws exclusive for a month to USA when you have a network that's more forward-thinking in its ideas at the same time. Why not give us Raw on Sundays a week later before the next Raw? Older stuff is mostly useless when the new one happens.
 

RP912

Banned
I'm not going to order the Network for the current product because the current product is garbage. They don't make me interested in the storylines or the characters enough to even pay $10 a month. Usually I can't even make it through the 3 hour Raws.

I refuse to watch old footage if it has altered music. I really like entrances. It sets the tone for the match and if you're watching something old, it tells you who is liked and who is hated. The music and entrance tells you what their character was like without seeing them do anything. RVD comes out to some generic cowboy music in ECW on the network. You couldn't have picked anything more opposite. Jericho coming out to his WWE Walls in WCW makes his whole character in WCW come off as stupid.

It's actually a bigger deal than it sounds because changing the music in most cases changes the crowd. For example, if you go and watch a RVD entrance from ECW, now he comes out to silence from the crowd. RVD at the time was a phenomenon in ECW. You lose a big part of that if you remove his entrance where the ECW fans were worshipping him and would sing along to his theme. I hope no one is experiencing ECW for the first time through that.


You have a point there. Its sometimes hard to watch ecw shows on the network because of the shitty b tier cover songs because of licensing issues. New jack coming out with a shopping cart full of crap to some generic rap song brings down the mood of the match. As far as fans being silence to rvd...I blame that on the company itself. When you conditioned the hell out of crowds by taking away some signs, trying to push a certain wrestler on them and make them feel like a inferior part of the show...you are going to get nothing but lukewarm reception to majority of wrestlers with the exception of the usual.

The only wrestler to get pops without being forced is daniel bryan....dude is like the example of how to gain an audience without the machine of WWE pushing for the agenda.
 

kirblar

Member
I've seen this a few times,

Why is it important that you have a live broadcast of your RAW/SD on WWE:N? Do you not have access to it on your cable box?

Hell, I've got access to live RAW/SD on my cable box, my providers iPad/Android/Web Apps, as well as hosted on their website for a few weeks after it's broadcast.

It's obviously a business decision they've taken. They wouldn't get the long, multi-year, expensive deals they're signing up. It's a boon for the broadcasters to have 'exclusivity' on this stuff and means they can push the price up without really impacting the viewers.
Because lots of people aren't paying for Cable anymore.
 

krae_man

Member
See Vince,

This is why you don't destroy your entire business model in one swoop.

WWE network needed to either

1) Go all in with all content live.

2) Be an archive of on-demand old matches and specials.

Giving away the PPV but not the TV product was really, really dumb.

I still don't understand why a simulcast can't happen. Sell Raw to TV networks, simulcast it on WWE network exactly as it appears on cable channel(ie commercials and all unchanged), give TV networks access to the number of viewers on the network so they can adjust ad rates accordingly.
 

Carnby

Member
Because lots of people aren't paying for Cable anymore.

Cable is a waste of money when you can legally purchase new shows within a day of airing. I will never cancel my WWE Network sub, because I won't pay for cable just to watch PPVs.

Before the WWE Network, they didn't get any money from me, and now they do. And I don't have cable.
 

SoulPlaya

more money than God
I still don't understand why a simulcast can't happen. Sell Raw to TV networks, simulcast it on WWE network exactly as it appears on cable channel(ie commercials and all unchanged), give TV networks access to the number of viewers on the network so they can adjust ad rates accordingly.
The actual contracts they had signed with the networks didn't allow it, and would result in too big a cut from TV revenue if they did allow it.
 
The doom and gloom is laughable. 6 months ago Network was a god send and was pretty much what everyone wanted. Now it's shit and bad for business. PPV was dying and they only made good money with Wrestlemania. Last i checked WM30 did pretty damn good even with the Network available. They won't be anywhere close to 1mil like they thought but i still believe it's been a impressive start.
 

bigkrev

Member
I still don't understand why a simulcast can't happen. Sell Raw to TV networks, simulcast it on WWE network exactly as it appears on cable channel(ie commercials and all unchanged), give TV networks access to the number of viewers on the network so they can adjust ad rates accordingly.

Wrestling gets bad ad rates despite it's high ratings, due to the perceptions advertisers/people in general have about wrestling fans. The reason that USA is paying for Raw is because it does a high number that inflates it's weekly average raiting. This is why Spike kept Impact around for as long as it did- they can make more money showing reruns of Cops, but the viewership of Impact increases their prime time average.

USA wants people watching exclusively on TV. They don't even let you watch Raw on the USA app, which requires a cable company log-in (it's the only show on the channel this is true for). The ads aren't what they care about, it's the Televisions tuned into the channel for 3 hours in prime time each week they care about.
 
The doom and gloom is laughable. 6 months ago Network was a god send and was pretty much what everyone wanted. Now it's shit and bad for business. PPV was dying and they only made good money with Wrestlemania. Last i checked WM30 did pretty damn good even with the Network available. They won't be anywhere close to 1mil like they thought but i still believe it's been a impressive start.
What are you even talking about? People have posted many reasonable and valid reasons for why the network isn't living up to their expectations.
 

jmdajr

Member
The doom and gloom is laughable. 6 months ago Network was a god send and was pretty much what everyone wanted. Now it's shit and bad for business. PPV was dying and they only made good money with Wrestlemania. Last i checked WM30 did pretty damn good even with the Network available. They won't be anywhere close to 1mil like they thought but i still believe it's been a impressive start.

WWE isn't going out of business. Heck Monday Night RAW was sold out just a few days ago.
 

Google

Member
People don't have cable anymore. They want options relevant to how they watch TV now.

I appreciate that.

The WWE been dependent on TV networks for decades and they've done well by them. They obviously feel there's good money to be made by staying true to their partners and are not yet willing to back out.
 

RP912

Banned
The doom and gloom is laughable. 6 months ago Network was a god send and was pretty much what everyone wanted. Now it's shit and bad for business. PPV was dying and they only made good money with Wrestlemania. Last i checked WM30 did pretty damn good even with the Network available. They won't be anywhere close to 1mil like they thought but i still believe it's been a impressive start.

Nobody denying its a good start but it's in need of improvements. Hell I'm thinking of renewing myself since I only watch the network, twitch, and youtube. I just hope they can fix up what need to be fixed like more content, a better 24/7 experience, and adding some things for viewer experience like bookmarking parts of a show you was watching.
 

krae_man

Member
The actual contracts they had signed with the networks didn't allow it, and would result in too big a cut from TV revenue if they did allow it.

Wrestling gets bad ad rates despite it's high ratings, due to the perceptions advertisers/people in general have about wrestling fans. The reason that USA is paying for Raw is because it does a high number that inflates it's weekly average raiting. This is why Spike kept Impact around for as long as it did- they can make more money showing reruns of Cops, but the viewership of Impact increases their prime time average.

USA wants people watching exclusively on TV. They don't even let you watch Raw on the USA app, which requires a cable company log-in (it's the only show on the channel this is true for). The ads aren't what they care about, it's the Televisions tuned into the channel for 3 hours in prime time each week they care about.

I understand they fear their death coming, but this would delay it no?
 
The network is the definition of over promise and under deliver. They make it sound like you had access to everything, but I did the free week trial earlier this month and the amount of available content was horrible for this type of service. Want to watch Attitude era Raws? Not there. Want to watch Nitro? Not there. They knew they were launching this service atleast a couple of years ago. The lack of content they have is horrible. So, that leaves you with primarily new content to watch and the current product is horrible. Their exclusive programming is basically limited to Legends House right now, which was filmed 3 years ago and they've delayed new original shows they were planning like a new season of Tough Enough. Even if they did have all the old content there, it's still a very limited service. Old wrestling shows have a very short shelf life for most of the audience. How many times do you really want to go back and watch a wrestling show again?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom