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By James Caldwell, Torch assistant editor

WWE released a memo to PPV providers with a complete list of their 2010 PPVs and an announcement they will be increasing the base price of PPVs from $39.95 to $44.95, reports PWInsider.com.

We reported last week that WWE is dropping the Judgment Day PPV from the spring schedule to space out PPV events. Last year, WWE crammed four straight PPVs into an every-three-weeks schedule that led to fewer PPV buys across the board, except for the Extreme Rules PPV.

WWE cited general criticism of the company's PPV schedule in an explanation for the changes. "The strategy of reducing our pay-per-view calendar to one event per month (except for October) achieves both creative and business objectives for WWE," WWE said. "It allows us to better develop compelling storylines and arcs in order to motivate our fans to purchase more pay-per-views. This change also allows for increased marketing windows for each event, during which we can more effectively communicate our sales message."

In addition to dropping the J-Day PPV, WWE has changed the Night of Champions PPV to September. WWE is listing "TBD" for the July PPV event, which is when Night of Champions usually takes place. Breaking Point is no longer listed for September.

Caldwell's Analysis: At first blush, the price change looks like a bad move even though WWE is trying to recoup the lost revenue from dropping a PPV event from the schedule. Unless WWE starts rotating new stars into PPV main events every-other-month to freshen up the PPV line-ups or they come up with PPV concepts that actually flow with the storyline progressions and aren't "circles crammed into square pegs," WWE is going to have a difficult time asking people to pay five more dollars for the same old matches. There's also something psychological about asking customers to pay $39.95 vs. $44.95. Once you pass the $30-level, a wrestling PPV almost becomes too much money to ask a consumer to pay. WWE doesn't have enough new fresh match-ups or new content to ask people to spend five more dollars without adding value to the pay events.

One solution would be a frequent-buyers club where consumers can receive discounted tickets to WWE shows locally or free merchandise or an entry in contests if they order x number of PPVs per year. Recently, WWE has created "package PPV deals" where consumers can receive a discount if they order one of the Big Four PPVs and two of the "off-brand PPVs" surrounding the big event. WWE really needs to emphasize this with their marketing if they expect customers to spend $50 (with taxes added in) for a product that's very similar to what they can watch on free TV.

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