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Jimmy Boy

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Wouldn't it still take the subscriptions in to account anyway? Which if anything also minimizes whatever potential impact the official launch of the Network internationally will have considering surely if you're that fucked about getting it you've done the whole Unblock-Us thing and are on it already anyway. I know not every kid in England has gone down that route and their parents might wait until after it's officially launched but realistically most of the people buying this thing are the ones who are really arsed about their wrestling.

Edited by Gay as FOOK
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over 60% to their 12 month break-even target in just over 6 weeks, they have to be happy with that.

They can't be. The number surely won't grow much from what it is now -- if anything, they might have less at the end of the year, once the first six month obligations are up. "WrestleMania for $10" was the big draw for the network. They've got three quarters of the year left to convince people to buy it (and apparently there are still a lot of luddites who are phoning their cable companies asking for it), but I'm not so sure that the number's going to increase by a third.

 

Remember their 1 million target includes their major overseas markets where the Network isn't officially available yet.

 

 

Nope, they need a million domestic. Bix of Fighting Spirit did a decent article on it here:

 

http://m.bleacherreport.com/articles/20202...rs-announcement

 

Put's it into perspective that it's almost the exact number of domestic PPV buys last years Mania got. I agree with Pitcos, asking for an increase by a third now, with Mania done and dusted, feels a stretch.

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over 60% to their 12 month break-even target in just over 6 weeks, they have to be happy with that.

They can't be. The number surely won't grow much from what it is now -- if anything, they might have less at the end of the year, once the first six month obligations are up. "WrestleMania for $10" was the big draw for the network. They've got three quarters of the year left to convince people to buy it (and apparently there are still a lot of luddites who are phoning their cable companies asking for it), but I'm not so sure that the number's going to increase by a third.

 

Remember their 1 million target includes their major overseas markets where the Network isn't officially available yet.

 

I can see it growing, the price of every PPV in the states is insane, once people know Mania went off without a hitch it might push more people to subscribe. There will also be more original content which they will be pushing on the TV shows.

 

So you are saying that the WWE will attract 300,000 extra viewers to watch Extreme Rules etc when they were only drawing 150,000 buys domestic. I just can't see it. You have to think that most of the hard core fans will have signed up for this now. I was working some figures out before in relation to the PPV/Network money that WM could have drawn. Now the network had 667,287 paying $9.99 each for WM. That comes to $6,666,197.13 in revenue for that show. WM29 last year drew an estimated 750,000 buys in North America. Now take away 150,000 for Canadian buys and that leaves you with a PPV gross (before splits with the PPV companies) of $41,994,000. That's a difference of $35,327,802. That means the WWE will have to shift another 504,755 buys to make up the sort fall in money from the North American market. I just don't see WM doing that kind of number when a large portion of your fan base bought the network. I know that a lot of people bought the PPV show but that's still not going to cover the short fall. Even if you take into consideration that the WWE have grossed $39,997,182.78 in total subscriptions over the 6 month period that's still not enough to justify putting WM on the Network. Even after the 50/50 split things don't look great. WWE Grossed $20,997,000 from WM last year. Probably (after the spilt with cable companies) an extra $23,096,700 from the remaining 6 shows. That's a total of $44,093,700. Myself, I think we will find WM on PPV next year with the remaining 11 shows still on the network.

Edited by Mr Tibbs
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Great piece by MookieGhana who, coincidentally, predicted one week after launch that the peak subscription number this year would be 650,000: http://whatculture.com/wwe/667287-subscrib...wwe-network.php

 

Key points:

 

* The current subscription level is enough to cover the annual running costs (not the start-up costs), but likely isn't high enough to make up for lost PPV revenue. However, we won't know that for sure till the traditional PPV figures start rolling in.

 

* Given first day signups seem to have been well over half the current figure, and given Mania was the single factor most likely to boost signups, it's hard to see how the current figure will increase domestically at anything more than a trickle.

 

* If the price was $15 a month right now, they'd already be at break even. The question is how many subscribers they'd lose if they bumped the price up (presumably in August/September.)

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* Given first day signups seem to have been well over half the current figure, and given Mania was the single factor most likely to boost signups, it's hard to see how the current figure will increase domestically at anything more than a trickle.

 

I wonder how much of an effect it'll have that there were no fuck ups with WM, as I'm presuming a lot of people were thinking there'd be teething problems and held off subscribing as they didn't trust their favourite show of the year on a new system.

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Great piece by MookieGhana who, coincidentally, predicted one week after launch that the peak subscription number this year would be 650,000: http://whatculture.com/wwe/667287-subscrib...wwe-network.php

 

Key points:

 

* The current subscription level is enough to cover the annual running costs (not the start-up costs), but likely isn't high enough to make up for lost PPV revenue. However, we won't know that for sure till the traditional PPV figures start rolling in.

 

* Given first day signups seem to have been well over half the current figure, and given Mania was the single factor most likely to boost signups, it's hard to see how the current figure will increase domestically at anything more than a trickle.

 

* If the price was $15 a month right now, they'd already be at break even. The question is how many subscribers they'd lose if they bumped the price up (presumably in August/September.)

 

I think a rise to $15 a month (for what you get) is a perfectly fair price. However, I would hold of that increase to next year before WM. People are likely to pay an extra $5 for WM etc, than they are for Survivor Series and TLC.

Edited by Mr Tibbs
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Great piece by MookieGhana who, coincidentally, predicted one week after launch that the peak subscription number this year would be 650,000: http://whatculture.com/wwe/667287-subscrib...wwe-network.php

 

Key points:

 

* The current subscription level is enough to cover the annual running costs (not the start-up costs), but likely isn't high enough to make up for lost PPV revenue. However, we won't know that for sure till the traditional PPV figures start rolling in.

 

* Given first day signups seem to have been well over half the current figure, and given Mania was the single factor most likely to boost signups, it's hard to see how the current figure will increase domestically at anything more than a trickle.

 

* If the price was $15 a month right now, they'd already be at break even. The question is how many subscribers they'd lose if they bumped the price up (presumably in August/September.)

 

I think a rise to $15 a month (for what you get) is a perfectly fair price. However, I would hold of that increase to next year before WM. People or ore likely to pay an extra $5 for WM etc, that they are for Survivor Series and TLC.

 

It's a totally fair rise, but risky - I'm not 100% that I would stick with it after a 50% rise in costs.

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WWE stock closed 14.3% down today after the WWE released it's figures for the Network. I think that tells you a lot about it's perceived success. I just hope they can cut a great TV deal or the shit is really going to hit the fan on Wall Street!

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WWE stock closed 14.3% down today after the WWE released it's figures for the Network. I think that tells you a lot about it's perceived success. I just hope they can cut a great TV deal or the shit is really going to hit the fan on Wall Street!

 

Right now, it says more about speculation and overinflated expectations (not necessarily the WWE's doing, although I doubt they were reigning anyone in) that anything.

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This number is exactly that, just a number. Until we have other figures it is impossibly to judge its success. They will only know what the network is and its potential when the Wrestlemania number comes in. It could be that all of the casual watchers who buy WM still just bought it in the conventional way and they could still score a good number there. Also, when is this number from? Does that include all of the late sign ups and sign ups today wanting to watch the replays after hearing Taker lost etc?

 

I think they should be satisfied with it, taking the Network internationally will get them over 1 million I believe. I think this is proof that the Network isnt quite what I and I imagine others had in mind though. Its clearly a product aimed at the hardcore, older fan. I dont think theyve really done enough yet to grab the younger audience and make them sign up. They clearly thought including all of the PPVs would have done this but I think they need to do a lot more as far as original content to do it.

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Instead of the WrestleMania rewind this week (premiering tomorrow), they've got two thirty-minute "WrestleMania Journey" documentaries each focusing on one guy in the week building up to this year's show. Not sure who, but it appears one of them is Bryan.

 

EDIT: Now been updated and it's a one-hour show and definitely about Bryan.

 

Also, they apparently filmed loads of stuff for the network over the past week, probably because they had the whole crew and the old-timers in the same place for a few days.

Edited by JNLister
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