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WWE to BT Sport?


Hannibal Scorch

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To me this seems a really odd deal for all parties involved.

SKY - to my knowledge are losing subscribers hand over fist. Over the last few years they have lost Champions League, Europa League, La Liga and have shared rights on most domestic football in the UK. They're struggling fot content on their sports channels so badly that they've been showing e-sports and stuff like minor pool tournaments. Add this with the ever increasing price raises, streaming services such as Netflix providing largely far better value, the rise in popularity and ease of availability of piracy and things such as IPTV and people are going to be finding it increasingly harder to justify keeping subscriptions going. Regardless of product quality WWE provide well produced content in good quantity with far less of a niche audience than the Irish GAA sports or 9 ball pool tournaments with largely poorly produced and presented shows.

BT - they've shown already that many people would rather just not watch their content rather than pay another seperate subsciption for it. I know lots of people with SKY but the vast majority of people I know who have BT Sport have it because they get it free through their BT/Virgin package. The WWE product is arguably at the worst its been since 94-96 meaning casual fans who dont already have BT Sport are probably very unlikely to take out a subscription just to continue watching RAW and Smackdown. Added to that Id imagine many bigger fans like myself who dont already have BT Sport are also unlikely to take out subscriptions to watch 2 shows where largely nothing of any interest that I can't see clips of on twitter the next day ever happens, let alone when I can just watch much better stuff and all the PPV's as they happen on the Network for much less.

WWE - surely moving to a platform with what I'd imagine had significantly less viewers in the UK was bad business particularly for a company with a fledgling UK specific show which already isn't doing great for itself. They have tonnes of money, the amount in difference between SKY and BT offers is probably very unlikely to make a dent to them. What they do need however is to continue developing and maintaining as big of a fanbase as they can here to help continue selling out hugely lucrative house show tours and merchandise sales. I'd imagine they particularly cant afford to lose loyal fans who don't want to take out another subscription to a seperate service to continue watching a current product that nobody seems to be enjoying. If the product is that poor its likely to struggle to attract new fans who already have BT and check it out but then dont maintain an interest. Whilst Im not for one second suggesting AEW will even lay a glove on WWE if theyre going to have a free weekly show on a channel available to vastly more people here thats also something Id see as a potential concern.

Maybe I'm wrong totally but those are my thoughts on the situation.

Edited by Jonny Vegas
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2 hours ago, Yakashi said:

I think it’s a combination of wwe treating them like shit during the network launch. 

That was 5 years ago. Being a corporate entity Sky have probably had 3 heads of programming since then. There's no money in being vindictive. Someone at Sky says that the advertising rates for slots during WWE programming are worth £X. Multiply that by the number of hours of programming, add some fudge factor and that's what they're willing to pay for the rights. As ratings likely migrate to Network / YouTube recaps the value of the ad slot goes down. 

If BT are willing to pay more, that's the price. Vince has proven repeatedly over 35 years that only money matters and the accumulation of all of it. 

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9 hours ago, bAzTNM#1 said:

Sky must be losing money. Even Sky News these days looks like it's filmed in somebodies living room.

They're doing very well looking at the past few years finances 

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1 hour ago, PowerButchi said:

They're doing very well looking at the past few years finances 

Of course they are. Crazy to think otherwise. Spending huge on content outside of sports. Despite losing high profile football, the prices still rise. Plus it's a business more diverse than just TV. It's clearly successful, unfortunately.

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Yeah, try quitting NowTV and they normally offer a big deduction. Say the movie package is £12 a month, if you cancel,sometimes they offer it to you for £3.99 a month. It's insane what they'll do to keep you.

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AEW on ITV and WWE on BT....Cody wasn't kidding at Starrcast when he brought this up at the 'Evening with Cody and The Young Bucks' event. He was making the point that AEWs TV deal is much better that WWEs thanks to.Tony Khan. I wonder if they had insider info about the BT deal?

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7 hours ago, Devon Malcolm said:

What figures did he present to back this point up?

I'd imagine they're talking about reach. Definitely not talking money. Never seen any figures for what AEW are being paid but it's gonna be peanuts compared to WWE. It's great for them that they have the opportunity to be seen and great for fans but it's a business and it's about the dosh. If they convert big viewership into PPV buys and everything else then great but it's not better.

Don't blame them for saying so, it's a hype business. Surely no one sensible believes it.

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19 hours ago, tiger_rick said:

I'd imagine they're talking about reach. Definitely not talking money. Never seen any figures for what AEW are being paid but it's gonna be peanuts compared to WWE. It's great for them that they have the opportunity to be seen and great for fans but it's a business and it's about the dosh. If they convert big viewership into PPV buys and everything else then great but it's not better.

Don't blame them for saying so, it's a hype business. Surely no one sensible believes it.

Oh, I never meant that the AEW deal was for the same $$$ as WWEs, I was referring to the reach of the channels concerned. 

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