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WWE NEWS: Latest WWE Network subscriber count released, plus WWE announces big Network/TV deal in Canada

Jul 31, 2014 - 8:27:55 AM
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By James Caldwell, PWTorch assistant editor

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WWE reported Thursday that WWE Network subscriptions were 700,000 at the end of Second Quarter 2014 (as of June 30).

This is only slightly up from the previous public figure of 667,000 subscribers in May.

As a result, WWE announced Thursday a 10-year Network carriage deal in Canada through Rogers Communications that will treat the Network like a pay-TV channel.

WWE also announced plans to make the Network available globally starting August 12.

Caldwell's Analysis: This is a major shift from planning to roll out internationally at the end of 2014 and into 2015. However, with domestic Network subs flat and WWE needing to reach a break-even point of 1.3-1.4 million global Network subscribers to offset the "complete cannibalization of the Company’s Pay-Per-View and SVOD businesses," this was ultimately necessary.

It's apparent WWE got the vast majority of domestic Network subscribers they were going to achieve in the first 2-3 months of the Network roll-out, and their marketing effort since then has not produced a jump in subs. Now it's apparent why they sounded so desperate on Raw a few weeks ago with Jerry Lawler produced to beg the viewing audience to subscribe to the Network.

But, the marketing effort and distribution continues to be a problem, as there is a sense of "oh, this is cool," but there is no call to action or sense of urgency to subscribe. Being live at Raw on Monday, WWE bombarded the audience with Network ads during commercial breaks, yet the marketing effort fell flat with the audience since there was no call to action and there is no universal subscription model that everyone can grasp like picking up a remote control for cable/satellite. This will be an uphill battle domestically. Now, WWE turns to international in hopes of equalling the domestic turn-out to break even.


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