PWTorch.com - WWE Q1 RESULTS: WWE reports First Quarter 2015 earnings - record quarter, effect of WrestleMania business, more

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WWE Q1 RESULTS: WWE reports First Quarter 2015 earnings - record quarter, effect of WrestleMania business, more

Apr 30, 2015 - 8:09:22 AM

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By James Caldwell, PWTorch assistant editor

WWE reported Thursday First Quarter 2015 revenue of $176.2 million, which WWE says was the highest quarterly revenue in WWE history.

Analysts predicted $171.5 million for a quarter that included an expected bump in TV Rights Revenue from WWE's new TV deals, the ramp-up of WWE Network, and the timing of WrestleMania. This year, Mania 31 occurred in March, as opposed to April, which lumped all Mania business into the First Quarter results.

Excluding the effect of WrestleMania, total revenue would have been $151.3 million, up from $125.6 million during the prior year first quarter, which included the first month-and-a-half of Network growing pains.

WWE also reported Net Income of $9.8 million, reversing the trend of net losses during the initial phase of WWE Network. Excluding the cost of producing WrestleMania, Net Income would have been $10.1 million.

The effect of WrestleMania 31 included:

- WWE says WrestleMania generated revenue of $24.9 million (14 percent of total revenue), as "best estimated from the direct contribution of the event to ticket sales, merchandise sales, pay-per-view revenue, and pay-per-view production costs (excluding any attribution from WWE Network)."

- Of the revenue generated by WM31, WWE says approximately $15.7 million was from North American live event revenue for the actual WM31 event at Levi's Stadium and surrounding weekend events.

- Also within the total figure, $3.3 million was venue merchandise generated by WrestleMania.

- WrestleMania produced 259,000 total PPV buys, versus 690,000 buys last year for the first WrestleMania in the Network era.

Financially, this was broken down as $4.9 million in revenue, which translates to $18.9 in WWE's pocket per PPV buy. Thought of another way, it's getting a customer to subscribe to the Network for two months during the year.

- From a profit standpoint, live event profits increased $13.8 million, with $11.1 million attributable to WrestleMania.

Also, Network segment profit increased $2.1 million due to "significant growth in subscription revenue partially offset by the production costs associated with WrestleMania."