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KELLER BLOG: WrestleMania goes up to $55, all other PPVs $45 - let the pirate feed frenzy begin Nov 7, 2009 - 2:23:07 PM
WWE announced that WrestleMania 26 will cost fans $54.95, up from $49.95. All other PPVs will go up from $39.95 to $44.95.
This is a mistake. It's outright greedy.
They've been pushing it with the prices going above $30 for monthly shows, but this pricepoint is going to turn off a lot more customers than they gain in added revenue. Watching a WWE PPV is going to be an elite service for families with six-figure incomes. Or - and this is where WWE is really off-base with this move - they're simply going to drive people to the unstoppable free feeds on the Internet.
On UFC's latest PPV two weeks ago, announcer Mike Goldberg read a statement about the PPV telecast being copyright UFC and listed all of the ramifications of stealing the feed or rebroadcasting the feed. Color commentator Joe Rogan replied: "That's new. You can't fight the internet, baby."
WWE should be lowering the price of PPVs to bring in a higher number of customers who are fleeing to the Justin TV type feeds that are inevitably going to be out there, not to mention the ability to find out what happened in written format all over the Internet.
This pricepoint, for normal people who aren't lost in Wall Street's and big business's attitude of "what's five more bucks?", is going to seem excessive. It's the tipping point. It's when WWE, I predict, will see PPV buyrates drop a significant percentage once the price raise takes effect.
WWE PPVs are too plentiful and don't feel special enough to demand this pricepoint, especially when they come at us every three weeks. Even monthly, it feels like too big of a chunk of a cable bill. $39.95 was already pushing it. Heck, I thought $34.95 was pushing it.
Considering WWE also offers Raw, Smackdown, ECW, and Superstars, and with Impact (and ROH) providing more weekly hours on basic cable, more fans than ever are already satiated by week's end.
If the free Internet pirate feeds weren't available and unstoppable, this might be a move to consider, but in today's environment, they're creating the same environment that has led to the death of CD stores. When Sam Goodys were charging $20+ for a CD when teenagers could download the same CD for free off of Napster, it made the choice easy even for otherwise honest teenages and twentysomethings.
(Last night's new VIP Bruce Mitchell Audio show with guest host James Caldwell features an in-depth discussion on this subject.)
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