Variety Covers WWE Network Success
Variety is the latest media outlet to promote WWE’s successful fourth quarter earnings report, announced yesterday, and discussed how the WWE Network was a gamble but it is slowly paying off.
Regarding the public opinion regarding the whole Network introduction, Variety’s Senior Editor Marc Graser writes:
There was an interesting line in WWE’s latest earnings report: “The rate of WWE Network subscriber adoption is a critical determinant of the company’s projected future financial performance.”
People who buy stock in publicly traded companies generally don’t like risk. They prefer companies that have divisions that pump out reliable numbers quarter after quarter. But WWE has taken a big risk since February 2014, when it launched the WWE Network, its over-the-top streaming service that makes all of its pay-per-view events and other programming available for a flat monthly fee of $9.99.
While analysts freaked out that WWE would take a massive hit — charging $9.99 a month for 12 PPV events, including “WrestleMania,” rather than the roughly $50 per event it did in the past — the impact hasn’t been as negative as expected.
WWE surprised Wall Street on Thursday when the company reported better-than-expected results for not only the fourth quarter but all of 2014.
WWE Return To Australia
WWE is scheduled to make a return trip to Australia later this year, and would make stops in Brisbane, Melbourne, and Sydney shortly before WWE Summerslam.
The tour would run from August 6th through the 8th, and John Cena, Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose are the top names being advertised to appear. Tickets will go on sale starting on February 16th.
