PaulNJ21
I shunned a voodoo witch, decapitated a black cat
Who all is getting the WWE Network with all the current PPVs and all of the old ones from WCW, ECW, and WWF and all of the other bells and whistles?
Paul
Paul
WWE Network
- Thread starter PaulNJ21
- Start date
LQJT86C
Where's my money, Chad?
Did my IM today inspire this? lol
I'll probably wind up getting it. I don't follow the product much these days, but like many old time wrestling fans I think access to the archived shows is worth the price alone.
I'll probably wind up getting it. I don't follow the product much these days, but like many old time wrestling fans I think access to the archived shows is worth the price alone.
Not to mention all PPVs included.That's a good way to get caught up quick, and I order Wrestlemania every year anyway. Stopped buying other PPVs a long time ago, but having them included I'll probably start watching them again.
LQJT86C
Where's my money, Chad?
That's the genius of giving away the PPVs over the network. I think fans who left the product for the most part years ago will return because the deal is too good to pass up.
BigPimpin
League Member
I'm very wary about the six month kick-up in price here, and I suspect that the service will encounter some serious lumps when open for public consumption. But if you plan on watching PPV's then it's worth it no question.
LQJT86C
Where's my money, Chad?
What happens after 6 months? The price goes way up or something? I'm totally not in the loop about this.
BigPimpin
League Member
They haven't announced anything official (nor should they) but it's likely going to be one of three things happening:
1) They've assessed their costs correctly and will hold that low pricepoint for another 6-12 month term.
2) They're slightly off on their costs and adapt the cell phone billing module: as long as you keep continuously paying you keep that price but if you join new later or miss a payment or make any changes whatsoever you get tagged with the new term rate
3) They've wildly underestimated their costs on this project and will raise all prices in 6 months to adapt.
If the WWE is smart they're starting this with an IAAS firm like Rackspace managing the day to day ops of the systems backing their network so that they can have a fixed monthly cost on their operating expenses. If they're stupid they're doing it all in-house and are going to get lit up when the service opens.
The X-factor here is the partnership with the MLB Advanced Media. Depending on how much of the costs and ops headaches they've offloaded to MLB this could be a win, but the 6 month pricepoint is probably based around when the MLB/WWE relationship comes up for renewal and, depending on how the renegotiation goes, that could also mean price increases across the board (though I suspect that would be more along the lines of a more reasonable cost increase than option 3 above; say, 0.50 increase service-wide as opposed to 3.00 or 4.00 per month on option 3)
The software as a service business is all about setting the correct monthly recurring revenue to realize a profit. Unless they have a ton of SaaS experience on staff the price will probably be in a state of flux for the first year or so, and we won't know whether this was truly a success for a year or two when the money hits the WWE's books.
LQJT86C
Where's my money, Chad?
I feel like the only this can be profitable is if it leads to more merchandise and ticket sales. Unless the number of subscribers hits an unbelievably astronomical number.
BigPimpin
League Member
That solely depends on the Ops costs and the loss of PPV revenues. In theory, they're not generating any (expensive) new content for this network. Legends House might be the only "new" thing they're doing that has a cost associated with it that is significant for a company of their revenue. And without getting too much into the math of PPV buyrates vs. monthly subscribers, its safe to say that roughly every two network subscribers is worth one buy of a non-Wrestlemania PPV, so if they lose, say, 100,000 subscribers from Backlash in April year on year, they'd simply need to have 200,000 people active on the WWE network to make up the difference.
You're likely right to think that increased merchandise and ticket sales is a desired side effect, but the fact of the matter is that, reading the WWE's financials, they hope to turn in $63 million OBDIA on the network alone by 2015, and they suspect that a "steady state" network will have 2-3 million subscribers. Even if it remains flat at $10 per head, that's $30,000,000 per month of revenue. Even if they fall short of 3 million headcount to, say, 1 million (fair estimate), getting $10,000,000 per month in increased revenue for what is essentially existing content is a hell of a profit.