WWE releases annual financial report

[Tired]

The WWE has released a financial report to it's investors. It makes for some interesting reading.

Please note that these statistics may not be accurate. The WWE has a habit of using "fuzzy logic" when calculating figures for investor knowledge. The WWE took 2 major stock drops this year when profits were proven to be much lower than what they had claimed. This report also has no cost or profit information, and misses significant details.

Please note that these statistics do not include December 2014 at all.

* Even though this year’s Survivor Series was technically free (because of the WWE Network special offer), more people paid the full $45 price for it than for Hell In A Cell.

* The WWE aimed to have 1 million US subscribers by the end of July. The report claims that they had 700,000 by the end of June. They had even fewer by the end of June.

* After missing the first target, the WWE set a new target of 1 million subscribers overall (including overseas subscribers) by the end of December. By the end of September, they only have 731,000 subscribers. The number of US subscribers only increased by 3,000 in three months.

* As was expected, PPV buys plummeted due to them being available on the Network. PPV buys from the first half of this year dropped by a third. PPV buys from the second half dropped by 2 thirds. This is bad news for superstars as this would mean a significant decrease in bonuses.

* Royal Rumble and Elimination Chamber buys were on par with the last 2 years. These were the only 2 PPVs that were not available live on the Network.

* Roughly two thirds of all PPV buys came from North America (US, Canada and Mexico).

* This is strange. The WWE expected PPV buys to decrease in countries where the WWE Network had become available. Amazingly, this happened in countries where it is NOT available too.

* Both Royal Rumble and WrestleMania 30 had in excess of 400,000 PPV buys. The rest have had fewer than 200,000 each.

* The company announced that they had 667,000 subscribers by WrestleMania 30. Hopefully this is false, because this has terrible implications for the Network. It means that that there have been really few subscribers since then, or a lot of people have cancelled their subscriptions.

* DVDs and Blu-Rays were doing strong sales until WrestleMania, but they have plummeted well below annual averages since.

* The biggest selling DVD/Blu-Ray was ‘WrestleMania 30’, selling 153,000 gross units.

* The fastest selling DVD/Blu-Ray was ‘WWE Slam City’. It sold 100,000 copies within a month. It is also the second biggest selling DVD/Blu-Ray.

* The other big DVD sellers have been the Ultimate Warrior and Sting DVD sets, and the ‘WCW’s Greatest PPV Matches’.

* Despite the availability of the WWE Network, more and more people are watching content via the WWE’s owned YouTube channels.

* The number of people watching videos on WWE.com has been consistent for the last 3 years.

* The number of followers of the various WWE owned social media accounts continues to grow rapidly. Facebook in particular is the most popular. The report does not mention that the number of official WWE owned Facebook accounts has tripled in the past year.

* The average paid attendance for a WWE event is between 5,200 and 6,400 people. This excludes WrestleManias.
Shows outside of North America have had a higher average attendance, despite being significantly fewer shows.
There were no shows held outside of North America this year before WrestleMania 30.

* Merchandise sales via the WWE Shopzone website have been higher than in previous years.

 

[Maximo]

It might be due to the Network having higher quality videos that are easier pirate as it takes a few steps out of the equation.

Everything else was expected, I told y'all merchandising is being the WWE's most reliable money maker.

The thing I find stupid about stock markets,
Someone freaks out or needs their money back and withdraws,
The stock's worth goes down, everyone else freaks out, more people leave, the business is worth less.
The WWE stock has actually been at its best since 2 years, this February it was the highest it has ever been in more then a decade and a half.

The network has increased by 3,000, that's a good thing.
I know the "expected" amount was 1,000,000, but
A/ it's a rounded up number, if they said we aim for 700,000 people it would be too specific and extremely odd, if they said half a million, investors would ask "why not a million?"
B/ it's increased, it hasn't stagnated or decreased, it's rising and that's excluding people buying memberships over Christmas.
For the people who've been saying the network isn't doing well, it's doing fine.

Looks promising.
It will be interesting to see next years report.

 

[super_joker]

and that's coming from a Brit who has WWE Network problems!

I totally BOlieve all wrestling fans should have the Network, WWE though still refuses to release the content that WOULD actually please the masses and keep them content.

I wonder how the demographics looked like in more detail like:
- who signed up A/S/L/P
- most watched show, ppv, etc

I think if it wants more international buyers it has to make more of an attempt to connect with the people, more international shows, an international ppv now would be amazing! ppl would buy that... i mean would you? would you buy it??

I did.