FanPost

WWE & Twitter: The Future of Television?

It doesn't take a rocket scientist (or even a statistician) to determine, with confidence, that Cagesiders are put off by the WWE's obsession with Twitter. According to a study by Nielsen, Twitter is "one of three significant variables (in addition to prior-year rating and advertising spend) to align with TV ratings".




While in reporting the results of this study Nielsen cautions "while our study doesn't prove causality, the correlation we uncovered is significant and will continue our research...". However, it is easy to see where this line of research is trending (you're welcome).


The WWE is perhaps the most aggressive company or organization (besides Twitter itself) in evangelizing consumers to use Twitter (they probably wish they would've invested in Twitter years ago) and other social media ventures to discuss their offerings, much less during the televised events. What's more the WWE makes social media an integral part of its main weekly shows Raw and Smackdown.


This may prove fruitful in providing research it can tout to advertisers, networks, and possibly even cable carriers as evidence that it's programming is underrated.


To be sure there are many interests at stake here. First and foremost networks have been arguing for years that the Nielsen system is outdated and isn't a significant measure of actual tv ratings (an argument I am partial towards) and have unsuccessfully been seeking an alternative. Secondly Twitter is a private company that turned down a buyout offer from Google that valued the company at Over 9 thousand million ($10 Billion to be exact). It main shareholders didn't turn down such an offer because they wish to remain a small indie company, but rather they believe such an offer would pale in comparison after an IPO (Facebook IPO'd at $50 Billion with some controversy).


They have yet to find a way to drive significant revenue and profit increases and becoming a complement to Nielsen or even supplanting Nielsen could do just that. Regardless twitter (and social media) may not be a matter of Vince doing anything to promote the WWE, but a way of increasing profits in the long run. Whether or not that was the case initially is irrelevant as this is the shape of things to come.

The FanPosts are solely the subjective opinions of Cageside Seats readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cageside Seats editors or staff.