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WWE executives just held their investors’ call to address their earnings report for the fourth quarter of 2019.
Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics summarized the key takeaways as follows:
Major takeaways:
— Brandon Thurston (@BrandonThurston) February 6, 2020
*WWE is considering selling PPVs to a streaming player, as soon as in Q12020.
*Record revenue, near record net income
*India and MENA TV deals still aren't done.
*WWE made ~$50mm from KSA again, as expected.
*Annual trends in subs, att, merch sales are in decline
Earlier today we touched on WWE’s curious statement about considering “strategic alternatives” to WWE Network, and Vince McMahon may have just provided a glimpse of what that could look like. After saying that WWE could continue on with their current network model, with a free tier and an enhanced paid tier, he mentioned that they also have other options.
“We also have an option right now, there’s no more better time, to exercise the selling of our rights to all the majors, quite frankly. All the majors are really clamoring for our content. So that could be a significant increase, obviously, in terms of revenue.”
That sure sounds like WWE is open to following in the footsteps of UFC’s Fight Pass model, where the streaming service exists for most content, but the big events must be purchased on another platform. Vince later said that if they decide to go this way, it will be announced in the first quarter of 2020. So we may be hearing more about this potential new strategy sooner rather than later.
This would present a significant change for consumers, who have become accustomed over the last six years to paying $9.99 each month for all of WWE’s premium content.
If this is in fact the route that WWE decides to go down, will it have an effect on your decision to subscribe to WWE Network?