Will the WWE Network fail?

[Broddie]

They're having some serious financial issues this week and it's partly being blamed on network expectations. 2 days ago WWE stock plunged a whooping 47 percent. That means about 40 percent of it's investors sold off their stock. That is no bueno. McMahon lost over $340 million of his own money in stock in one day this past week.

Then they had an investment firm buy into the company to help offset the stock plunge & prop it back up and publically traded companies don't normally do that unless they need to seriously re evaluate their financial short comings. The guy who runs the investment firm even said this regarding the network and I quote

"This follows what we believe to be material misrepresentations by the company about both the performance and operating profit model of its WWE network, which the company has wrongly labeled 'a homerun'," said Lemelson.

It's said that even if they accomplish their 1 million subscriber goal they will still be losing over $50 million dollars for fiscal year 2014. Murmurs around financial sites is they need at least 1 million domestic subscribers and if they go international then at least 2 million outside the US in order to break even with this venture. Good luck to them cause expanding the network worldwide is going to cost them a lot of money probably more than they could afford to spend right now.

 

[DOPEdweebz]

TNAWWE wont be around for another ten years.

Wrestling ain't as big as it was in the 80s or Attitude era or even ten years ago.

It dont matter how many WWE fans nuthug the product or even how truly great the product been outside the Kane vs DB feud, wrestling been dying a slow death since it bought out WCW, and made every other promotion pretty much irrelevant.

Wrestling needs competition but WWE fans only care about WWE not other companies.

Back in the day we had wrestling fans not wrestling geeks but fans who watched WWE, WCW, ECW on a weekly basis and cuz of loyal WRESTLING fans, everybody was making money even if Heymans checks bounced. Hell even ECW had a trash video game.

Does anyone here besides a handful watch ROH? TNA? ROH has been a breeding ground for new WWE and TNA superstars but most of you only care if they're at least associated with WWE NXT.

Its the "we're better than you" Narcissistic attitude of WWE fans tgat also is killing the business. They are only willing to put money in the WWE shows coming to town but never check for the other promotions.

Die hard pure wrestling fans are too far in between, and I've always been talking about this since I saw Raw going under 3.0 in the ratings during the CMPunk reign.

To sum it up: The death of pro wrestling won't be because the product is bad, it's gonna be because of us.

Either we only watch one show way too much or there simply ain't enough of us around anymore.

The internet is also a major killing of the business and most businesses post 9/11.

 

[jono]

The internet killing the business is very accurate and I wanted to make a topic about that but it's kind of a no-brainer.

That said, wrestling fans..die hards, are the ones screwing WWE the most. They are the ones giving their Network passwords to their buddies, they were the ones streaming PPVs for free, refusing to buy the network but watching their library on YouTube or Dailymotion, the dirtsheets with all their lies and wild speculation on top the exacerbated criticisms and product spoilers, the paranoia about stocks, TV ratings and PPV buys etc ...man the internet wrestling fan is hardcore but so damn cheap and fickle they aren't reliable anymore.

 

[Broddie]

Hell even ECW had a trash video game.

Actually they had 2. I still own one to this day.

Spoiler

 

[Broddie]

Wrestling needs competition but WWE fans only care about WWE not other companies.

Back in the day we had wrestling fans not wrestling geeks but fans who watched WWE, WCW, ECW on a weekly basis and cuz of loyal WRESTLING fans, everybody was making money even if Heymans checks bounced. Hell even ECW had a trash video game.

Does anyone here besides a handful watch ROH? TNA? ROH has been a breeding ground for new WWE and TNA superstars but most of you only care if they're at least associated with WWE NXT.

Its the "we're better than you" Narcissistic attitude of WWE fans tgat also is killing the business. They are only willing to put money in the WWE shows coming to town but never check for the other promotions.

To sum it up: The death of pro wrestling won't be because the product is bad, it's gonna be because of us.

Either we only watch one show way too much or there simply ain't enough of us around anymore.

A lot of truth right here.

 

[VIBE]

Price is already being said to be raised for the network.

I see it eventually reaching $14.99 a month.

 

[jono]

Isn't worth $15 a month?

This means a 6 month commitment would be $90.

I have seen people say that the current price is in line with netflix and Hulu+ but WWE has a smaller more niche audience.

 

[jono]

I mean "is it"

 

[RobCoLife]

As we speak now it is a fail. Vince lost $350 million in a span of 24 hours and they have not reached a million subscribers yet.

 

[its....JOHN B]

Although it's doing okay and Wrestlemania inticed 600,000 people to sign up there are still questions about the long term issue of the network.

Here are a few:

- it's killed the PPV business for them

- it's killed their DVD distribution

- there is always the option of people not renewing their subscription after the initial 6 month sign up

- eventually they will have to increase price on the network (to what I don't know but it won't stay 9.99 forever)

- eventually they will have to set up special packages for their events (they can't continue giving away PPVs basically for free)

- like Netflix and things of the same nature it's open to bootlegging (people giving away their password to their friends)

- there are still some struggles with lag and freezing due to their inexperience of running such a project

But there is some upside...

- WWE has a massive library and most of it isn't even on the network yet

- The Network isn't available outside the United States, when it hits the world it could be a huge success.

- The exclusive content seems to be quite popular.

- Older fans seem to be addicted to it.

- The technical issues will be cleared up over time as they get better at maintaining it.

So shake up your crystal ball and look into the year 2020 do you still see the Network around then or is it going the way of the XFL and many other McMahon ventures?

Did they expect otherwise?

 

[jono]

I think they expected the DVD sales to go down but for PPV companies to react how they did was unexpected I gather.

 

[Recaptimus_Prime360]

350 mil in 24hrs tho?? DIZ-ZAM!!

 

[Cliff Da Mont]

It's a great idea just has to catch on...problem mainly isn't the network it's the shitty product wrestling has become.

They need jr jake the snake Bret among other to be on the creative side

 

[dalyricalbandit]

I kinda miss the days of gimmicks and the days we aint know about wrestlers lives outside of the arenas

 

[DOPEdweebz]

We been watching the network for free since 2008.

 

[sobek]

350 mil in 24hrs tho?? DIZ-ZAM!!

Apparently Vince has lost $750 Mill in 2 months
http://www.torontosun.com/2014/05/28/wwes-vince-mcmahon-has-reportedly-lost-750m-in-two-months

 

[Young Gunner]

Its still not available outside the US. That's when those numbers are gonna cross 1 million. I'm sure WWE had to expect some kind of loss. What their contingency plan is remains to be seen. They shouldnt be in panic mood but should be concerned and hope this isn't a trend

 

[Broddie]

350 mil in 24hrs tho?? DIZ-ZAM!!

Apparently Vince has lost $750 Mill in 2 months
http://www.torontosun.com/2014/05/28/wwes-vince-mcmahon-has-reportedly-lost-750m-in-two-months

 

[dalyricalbandit]

 

[DOPEdweebz]

What happened to the official thread? Dead.