WyattSheepMask Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 I must admit, when I found out how they're working the model these days I face-palmed. Because the kind of people who will pay $9.99 a month for unlimited wrestling (in theory) are the same ones who will pay $29.99 for a monthly PPV. The network is giving away money. For what your getting, the price is an absolute steal, no one can deny that. It seems to be a case that the demand isn't there for what they need to break even. I saw a reported that said the setup costs for it in the region of $75m-$80m. How accurate that was I don't know, but that is a massive amount to risk if you can not make it back. It just depends how long they are prepared to run with it before deciding it's a dead-duck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Pitcos Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 I must admit, when I found out how they're working the model these days I face-palmed. Because the kind of people who will pay $9.99 a month for unlimited wrestling (in theory) are the same ones who will pay $29.99 for a monthly PPV. Â Actually, there are nine hundred million Americans "with an affinity for WWE," who won't pay $29.99 for a monthly PPV but will pay $9.99 a month for unlimited wrestling. At least, that was the kind of lie WWE trotted out to con investors earlier this year, which has resulted in class action lawsuits against them for misselling stock. Â PPVs aren't $29.99 anyway, they've been $40 or $50 for a while now, and more than that for WrestleMania. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AshC Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 Man, they're not selling it right...  Hundreds of hours of Raw Hundreds of hours of Nitro Hundreds of hours of PPVs  They should be shoving that down people's throats on social media, etc, not Legends House, Total Divas and the like  All those fans who no longer follow the product... they couldn't give a hoot what's going on in 2014, but offer them access to all those old shows at that price and it's a winner all day long. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twelve_grand Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 (edited)   Timescale? 19 months if they stick with the network model. That will be when they announce the subscriptions post WM.    No they won't. If the network fails, they'll just abandon it and take a financial bumming for a couple of years. To elevate that, they'll cut a lot of deadwood to claw back what they've lost. If Vince can survive a federal trial against him, the XFL failure, they can survive the failure of the network.  Easiest way to save money would be to ditch WWE Films They paid for the XFL out of the money from going public. They have almost burnt through their cash pile which is why the loss situation is so critical - if they can't pay the dividend their stock is going down the toilet. The film division is break even they went to the partnership model. Edited October 23, 2014 by twelve_grand Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WyattSheepMask Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 (edited) So if the films partner deal is only breaking even, why bother with it? Edited October 23, 2014 by WyattSheepMask Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twelve_grand Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 (edited)  Hundreds of hours of Raw Hundreds of hours of Nitro Hundreds of hours of PPVs But I thought they need to put subtitles on it to avoid a netflix type situation where they get sued? Which is why they're so slow in the first two elements. Edited October 23, 2014 by twelve_grand Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twelve_grand Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 Â Â Because the kind of people who will pay $9.99 a month for unlimited wrestling (in theory) are the same ones who will pay $29.99 for a monthly PPV. Wrong price but right idea. There is a limited market with a hardcore of fans. The product is price inelastic. It's so American that Stephanie McMahon got that fellowship when she can't understand basic economics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Pitcos Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 All those fans who no longer follow the product... they couldn't give a hoot what's going on in 2014, but offer them access to all those old shows at that price and it's a winner all day long.  There are very, very few lapsed wrestling fans that are going to pay $10 a month for wrestling. I used to like Pogs, I'm not going to pay a tenner a month for access to them when I've no interest in them anymore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twelve_grand Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014   So if the films partner deal is only breaking even, why bother with it? Limited liability/costs but if you ever have a hit you can cash in and you get in theory some brand and marketing value out of having the films out there on dvd. It may be just more or less than break even but not big loss anymore despite the Tesco like accountancy of films. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AshC Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 Hahaha. I guess what I was getting at was the people I know who enjoyed, and still enjoy, watching old stuff but have little to no interest in the current landscape. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loki Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 It's been a huge gamble. Â I'm not convinced the monthly pay model is sustainable unless you have a substantial turnover of content, greater than WWE has. Â Some sort of pay per view system would be better, where you have access to everything but pay pennies and pounds for content. Â So for example Raw and Smackdown are free, an old PPV is a quid, a new PPV is 4 quid, a documentary is a quid, and once you've bought something you can watch is again as much as you like. Â The other option I've been thinking about is whether you can tie online video content into ISP packages - so the IP provider (in this case WWE) tots up the number of minutes of content watched and charges the ISP, who in turn bill you, either by minute or in a similar fashion to your download limit, i.e a certain amount as part of the contract per month. Â So you pay 40 quid a month for your internet connection which includes 24 hours of media viewing, or something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twelve_grand Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 Â It's been a huge gamble. Â I'm not convinced the monthly pay model is sustainable unless you have a substantial turnover of content, greater than WWE has. Â Some sort of pay per view system would be better, where you have access to everything but pay pennies and pounds for content. Â So for example Raw and Smackdown are free, an old PPV is a quid, a new PPV is 4 quid, a documentary is a quid, and once you've bought something you can watch is again as much as you like. Â The other option I've been thinking about is whether you can tie online video content into ISP packages - so the IP provider (in this case WWE) tots up the number of minutes of content watched and charges the ISP, who in turn bill you, either by minute or in a similar fashion to your download limit, i.e a certain amount as part of the contract per month. Â So you pay 40 quid a month for your internet connection which includes 24 hours of media viewing, or something. Interesting ideas but I'm deeply suspicious of micro charging models. I think their model is the right model for the wrong product. They should be running it for 8 events per year plus all of the archive footage with the big 4 on PPV. Instead they panicked and messed up their biggest money earners of the year (WM and related content) to try and shoot a big network number, Now they can never go back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Arch Stanton Posted October 23, 2014 Paid Members Share Posted October 23, 2014 (edited) Is anybody clued in to what the UK set-up is going to be? They said an announcement will be made November 1st- what do we reckon the details will be? Â Also- any predictions on how many UK subscribers they will get? Edited October 23, 2014 by Arch Stanton Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Benno Posted October 23, 2014 Paid Members Share Posted October 23, 2014 The thing is, "over the top" services are the way the world's going. Netflix is the obvious example but you've got Hulu, Amazon etc and now even HBO and other American networks are getting in on it and launching their own services. All the major American sports are slowly doing it too. Â The massive difference is, WWE hasn't gone slowly and has gone all in, years too early and killed one of their biggest sources of revenue based on dodgy surveys and the idea PPV was dying, when it really wasn't, at least as fast as they were trying to convince themselves it was anyway. Â The worst thing is, they've both tied themsleves to the daft $9.99 price and managed to piss off all their PPV carrier partners to the point they can't really go back to the way things were. Just a catastrophe on all fronts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
truthofsin Posted October 24, 2014 Share Posted October 24, 2014 The thing is, "over the top" services are the way the world's going. Netflix is the obvious example but you've got Hulu, Amazon etc and now even HBO and other American networks are getting in on it and launching their own services. All the major American sports are slowly doing it too. Â I agree 100% here. I no longer have a TV license and all my viewing comes via Hulu Plus, HBO Go, Netlfix, 4OD, BBC iPlayer. In regards to WWE Network, i have a sub and generally only use it for the PPVs or NXT Specials. But i used to pay $8.99 for an unofficial HD PPV stream every month to watch live. So the extra $1 to pay out guarantees me a smooth service. Definitely worth it to me, as i never have an intention of gettign a Sky sub ever again. Given the only 'sports' i ever watched were wrestling, the Sky sub was damn expensive purely for that. Even before PPV charges. I think the Network will do well here in the UK. Maybe not huge numbers, but i figure there must be many in the same boat as me who want to watch the PPVs, but don't want to have to fork out for the Sky sub. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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