2nd Quarter Buyrates Are In

[klunderbunker]

And they are horrible.

From the main page.

WWE released the second quarter numbers for 2010, including buyrates for several of their recent pay-per view events.

Over The Limit drew 197,000 buys, Extreme Rules drew 182,000 buys and Fatal Four Way drew 143,000 buys.

The 143,000 buys for the Fatal Four Way show is the second lowest PPV buyrate in company history, trailing only the infamous December To Dismember show.

This tells me something: the gimmick PPVs, or perhaps just F4W just didn't do it. Too many PPVs in a row? Not good PPV ideas? People not liking the product? The economy resulting in people not having money to spend on shows?

Thoughts please.

 

[gd]

I thought Over the Limit would by far be the worst considering there was absolutely nothing to set it apart as something interesting to watch. Seriously, why would anyone buy that show? They'd already see 2 Cena/Batista matches and there wasn't much on the rest of the card.

Extreme Rules was more or less a repeat of Wrestlemania and the Fatal 4-Way card didn't look great, and it was coming off a couple of subpar PPVs.

You can see why there wasn't as much interest, along with the other factors difficult to account for such as the economy, availibility of shows online, etc.

It probably does mean we're going to be seeing even more new PPVs debuting next year though.

 

[Mitch Henessey]

Personally I didn't think Fatal 4 Way was bad. I recently had a chance to watch this ppv, and I actually enjoyed it. I think the main problem with Fatal 4 Way was that it was just too damn predictable. We all knew Swagger's reign was coming to end pretty soon, and when Rey replaced The Deadman, that could've been seen as huge hint at him becoming the new World Heavyweight Champion. Then there was the WWE cahmpionship match. We all knew that Nexus would get involved, and they did.

Then you have to consider having the same type of match multiple times in one night. The thought of seeing the same type of match in one night over and over again might just be enough to turn away potential ppv buyers. You might be able to get away with this when it comes to Hell In A Cell, Money In The Bank, or Elimination Chamber, but a fatal four way match just seems kind of common. It's something you can see for free on Raw or Smackdown.

The only gimmick themed ppv that should be safe is Elimnation Chamber. Chamber matches are usually awesome, and this ppv(whether it be No Way Out or Elimination Chamber) is last ppv before Wrestlemania, so we're sure to see some key moments that will play a crucial part in major Wrestlemania storylines. Other than that, I really don't care all that much about these gimmick themed ppvs. MITB was something special because it was exclusive to Wrestlemania, but now this match has been thrown into the pot with all of the other gimmick ppvs. I understand the whole creating new stars concept as far as this ppv goes, but wouldn't winning the briefcase at the big show make the victory much, much sweeter?

I think it's safe to say that Fatal 4 Way will be gone from the WWE gimmick ppv list some where down the line, because any time the buyrates near December To Dismember, then it's never a good sign.

 

[shattered dreams]

This tells me something: the gimmick PPVs, or perhaps just F4W just didn't do it. Too many PPVs in a row? Not good PPV ideas? People not liking the product? The economy resulting in people not having money to spend on shows?

Thoughts please.

It is probably a little bit of everything you mention. With the economy the way it is PPVs have to be a tougher sell than they used to be so people are more likely to pick and choose which ones they get. It is trickier than ever to make people want to purchase non-bigname PPVs. I think that is probably why they have been increasingly going to gimmicky PPVs (didn't tna get criticized for that a year or two ago?). The problem is that the main events tend to sell the PPV and when you have a gimmick, something that is supposedly unqiue-ish, as both the main events they tend to detract from one another. It might be more marketable but I think people are starting to realize that it is kind of lazy from a quality standpoint.

 

[Bobby B]

Yeah, awful numbers - but not really surprising to be honest.

None of these PPV's did anything remarkable. There's nothing extreme about Extreme Rules, Over the Limit had a stacked card but there was nothing on the card that you could be invested in.

The Fatal 4 Way number is remarkable, the Nexus angle was in its infancy, and they were playing up the idea of something big going down between Bret Hart and the Nexus (it never did because Hart left the day before, but the buying public wouldn't know that). Just tells you how bad the show was.

I think Money in the Bank was far better PPV than the previous three, so it should be up from these numbers, and Summerslam should be strong too.

Maybe the company have to rethink their program between Wrestlemania and Summerslam. 4 PPV's in as many months I don't think is a great strategy. Extreme Rules offers nothing in a PG WWE era, Fatal 4 Way I don't think is a great draw - they change titles enough already without needing to "stack the odds" against the champion even more.

 

[Boondocks]

I get Elimination Chamber and Wrestlemania every year, and that's it, with few minor exceptions. Hell in a Cell was one last year cuz I wanted to see how it'd do, but besides that, I only buy those two. I think it has to do with some of all of what was stated, but to me, mostly the fact that there are way too many PPV's. There's pretty much one a month, and that's a crap ton of money to sell all of them. I wouldn't pay more than 2-3 a year, not 12. They should slowly lower the amount of PPV's. I say slowly because then they could just keep dropping the ones that do worst, and keep the best 6-7 PPV's for annual showings.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

In all honesty, I think that one thing that might be impacting ppv buyrates as well has to do with the cost of ordering them. The WWE has increased the price of their ppvs so couple that with the times we live in economic wise and I'm not at all surprised that the ppv buys are down.

Is it possible that the monthly ppv buy has something to do with it? Yeah, I think that it's possible because you just can't sustain that "special show" feeling on a monthly basis. I think it might help if the WWE cut back on some of their ppv events. I've heard people say in the past that they should go down to about 6, but I don't think that's likely to happen. I think that cutting a few ppvs along with lowering the price could potentially be of help. Don't get me wrong, I dunno for sure, but common sense should've told Vince that jacking up the ppv price wasn't going to increase buys. My monthly satellite bill runs somewhere in the neighborhood of about $70 and what does the average WWE ppv cost now? $45-50?

 

[Phoenix]

The other issue that played against Fatal 4 Way is that 7 days before the PPV was due to air was that only two matches were confirmed and one of them didn't have the focus point of being a World Title match but Kane's vengeance rampage. As most of the card was virtually thrown together in one week, it wouldn't have convinced me as a viewer to order a PPV when I only have two confirmed matches to take place. Much like Mitch said, it was predictable, but lacked true build for anyone to buy it.

Over The Limit actually had a good listing of matches and feuds taking place, mainly with Cena/Batista and Punk/Mysterio, so you can see in comparison to F4W, they actually had storylines for us to care about where F4W didn't provide anything just...oh yeah these feuds finished...erm...throw these four into a match for no reason except the title.

Think F4W is definitely gone for certain, another Breaking Point failure. Fortunately at least from here til December things slightly perk up with Summerslam, Night of Champions and Survivor Series, while HIAC and Bragging Rights might throw a few surprises there if they make it not overkill for HIAC and add more to Bragging Rights, they could at least make it fixable for the next quarter, but not surprised at all about the buyrates tbh. They need to cut down at least one, or two, more PPVs.

 

[Ruthless-RKO]

WHOA!!

I think Fatal 4 Way was well ahead of Over the Limit...

It sure is suprising...

W going to have to see what the next gimmick ppvs get...

Night of Champions which has been running for 3 years now I think,
Hell in a Cell which will be in its second year,
same with Bragging Rights, I always liked the Raw vs Smackdown and TLC which I believe was a good ppv...

You know what I don't like about concept ppvs'...

The fact that we know the next time we'll see a tlc, elimination chamber and hell in a cell match...theres no suprise anymore when a wrestler shocks his challenger saying it will be this sort of a match or wateva...

Now we have to wait a whole year as well to see our favourite match types!!

 

[Showtime]

I gotta say that those figures are a pretty grim assessment of the current future. To me the numbers don't shock me much. WWE has been steadily declining in PPV buys for the last number of years. Vince is basically the creator of the concept of Pay Per View and it's a shame that WWE is falling way behind things like Boxing and the ever rising UFC.

UFC is the easy answer to blame for the WWE's numbers. They took the bulk of the teen and young adult demographic from WWE who once held it proudly during the Attitude era. The WWE has done what it has to survive, by targeting the kids instead, but there are a few problems with that demography. One, the kids don't have as much spendable cash as teens do. Parents are more likely to buy their kids T-Shirts and other souvenirs, but 50 bucks for a PPV that they can watch that's similar on free TV? Not often. Teens have another wonderful ability that kids don't have, they can go to bars. Bars once proudly hosted Wrestling PPV's, but that has now shifted more towards UFC. The teen and young adults are into UFC, not WWE, and will gladly pay 20 bucks to see it in a bar, or pay more at home.

So UFC took away the teen and young adult demography, so what's the next problem. Well another easy one is the price, 50-60 bucks is a lot of money is todays economy. And unlike say a group of tens who can split it 10 bucks each, a bunch of kids who come over to watch it ones house, who's stuck with the bill. Mom and Dad. Again, the economy is shit, and Mom and Dad aren't likely to fork over $60 when their kids can watch something similar Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday night. But I'm not here to judge the price change. The WWE is a professional business, and obviously feel that if they raise the prices they will make more money at the expense of a few thousand less buys. The real problem, is that it's becoming a lot more than a few thousand less buys.

You know what else can be to blame. The quality of the shows. Not saying RAW is always amazing, with all the pointless comedic bits and annoying plugs, but I'm saying we are seeing way too many main event matches given away on free TV. We never saw Rock vs Austin much on RAW during the Attitude era, they saved those for the PPV's. HHH and Austin as well, even going as far forward as Angle vs Lesner. They didn't give those matches away often on free TV, they saved them for the big PPV matches that people buy. WWE is starting to do less of that now that they are pushing more young talent. But the fact is I'd see matches like Cena vs Big Show, or CM Punk vs JBL, or Kane vs Mysterio, all the time on free TV, so when they fight on a PPV not apart of the Big 4, it doesn't inspire me much to shell out cash to see it again.

And then there is the frequency of the PPV's, which I see as WWE's only solution to curbing the low buys. In all honesty, I'm sick of seeing the quick 4 week build where aside from 1 or 2 matches, I have no idea what the others will be heading into the final week. Sometimes matches are randomly announced at the PPV. So instead of spending the time to build a feud slightly and announce it before the PPV to encourage a few extra buys, you surprise us with say Miz vs Kofi for the US title and get nothing extra out of it. I don't know how much money WWE makes off each PPV, but aside from the Big Four, I don't think they make much off the others. To give you an idea, on the main site.

WWE released the second quarter numbers for 2010, announcing $106.8 million in revenue with $6.3 million in profits. Those figures are down from last year, which saw $138.8 million in revenue and $19.9 million in profits.

Clearly that is enormous drop, although WrestleMania fell in the second quarter of last year (first quarter this year), which obviously changes things by leaps and bounds.

Without WrestleMania, the numbers would have been $106.6 million in revenue and $10.2 million in profits. So despite the WrestleMania factor, there is still a sizeable decrease.

So Wrestlemania last year brought in 30+ million in revenue and turned in a 9.7 million profit on it's own. So that means RR and EC PPV's, and 3 months of TV and house shows brought in 10 million. The same stretch from Over the Limit to Fatal 4 Way made 6.3 million. That is a significant difference. Again, I don't know how much each minor PPV brings in, but if they had fewer ones, I'm sure they might each do much better.

So my only advice for the WWE. Fewer PPV's, scale it back down to 6 (WM, RR, SummerSlam, Survivor Series, and 2 others) and make them 4 hour shows. Take the time to build all the matches on the card and make them exciting. He don't need single gimmick PPV's. The original concept of wrestling was that of a three ring circus, that there is something for everybody. A PPV with 3 Scramble matches, or 3 Submission, or 4 Fatal Four Ways, is basically the equivalent to a man continuously being shot out of a cannon. It gets boring after a while.

 

[Smooth Sexual Chocolate]

I'll keep this one short and sweet. The WWE went PG, they stopped aiming there programming at adults(the ones who buy the PPV's), not only that, but they shit all over the lasting memory of some classic PPV's. Eventually people are going to stop giving you their 45 dollars every month. I stopped over a year ago, I couldn't stand paying 45 dollars for a product that is not much better than whats put out on free TV. On top of that, lots of people like to dismiss the blood, and less swearing, less tits; when in fact it really seems to have had an effect, and not in a positive way.

 

[GeneralKarim]

As people said the WWE isnt that much interesting anymore.Yes they have the Undertaker angle with Kane champion and the NExus, but all the matches from the PPV,nobody gives a shit about them.Because they dont have a reason to.CM punk vs Misteryo was pretty personal but they had what? a match every fkn Smackdown..
We live in a world where money is the problem and they expect us to pay for shows that have crappy matches, crappy storylines ?I think WWE thinks the fans ( THE WWE UNIVERSE!!!!! ) are fucking morons who just buy their shit cause ...u know...its the WWE u have to buy ...shit man.

Lessen the PPVs, more build up to feuds( Not : " HEY U HAVE THE BELT, I HATE YOU,ME CONTENDER, ME WANT MATCH at NExT PPV kkkKKK ? ).
Heck something that just crossed my mind.Miz and MVP couldve had a very very entertaining feud with EPIC EPIC promos and they could have had a very nice build-up and people would care and stuff but they fucked that up ofc,The good feus are starting to be more rare and rare and rare that people someday will just stop watching all together.

 

[TJ Matics]

I blame PG,
If WWE wants it's numbers to rise,
Stop trying to feed an audience who's bed time is an hour before the show airs

 

[Born To Fly]

Those numbers are quite staggering, but it also could be that a lot of people are choosing the free way out and watching them online. Why would you pay for something you can get for free?

What was the buy rate for Wrestlemania this year? I'm sure those numbers were right where the WWE wanted since it's the one spectacle a year most wrestling fans want to see.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

There is more competition in general for entertainment dollars... 3D movies are more common and being aimed at kids. When I went to see Shrek 4 there were at least 5 trailers for new kiddie oriented 3D movies... with an average cost of 20 bucks a head for a 3D film, one movie a month easily costs the same as a WWE PPV... most families can only do one of these a month... the kids want to see the hurriedly made 3D Owls or the new Shrek/Pixar/Superhero movie... they dont' watch the PPV... most parents would see a cinema trip as more "quality time" than watching the WWE on PPV the night before school...

This really could be the chink in the armour of the PG strategy, as someone said those of us who would once religiously order a PPV, now know we can either go on a stream or just not bother cos little "must see" action takes place... there are few surprises anymore as they are sacrificed for those last minute buys... or even saved till the RAW after the PPV.

The best solution for WWE at this time is to bite the bullet and slash either its prices or the number of PPV's... 2 PPV's a quarter is more than enough for the current market... If need be, negotiate the remainder to be cable specials... WWF/E worked best when there was a fixed schedule and time to build to each PPV... WCW succeeded for a long time with Clash Of The Champions... there is no reason why WWE can't use both strategies...

Move the Specialised gimmick shows to cable, make them free and keep 8 proper PPV's a year, Rumble, WM, Summerslam, Surivor Series as prestige events... Keep Over The Limit, Backlash, Elimination Chamber and Night of Champions as PPV...

WWE could also be smarter about some of the shows and whether they can sustain a whole PPV on one concept... Money In The Bank is a great match... not a great PPV concept, but it could be blended with a King Of The Ring show... same for Fatal Four Way...

WWE does need to do something quick, those numbers will make investors nervous... most worrying is that in that period you had Bret Hart involved, ostensibly the biggest name they could bring back at the time...

 

[mrbrownstone]

This is no real surprise to me. None of those PPV's had anything worth buying on them and those numbers reflect that appropriately.

There was nothing extreme about Extreme Rules. Over The Limit surprises me slightly as it had a pretty stacked card with Cena/Batista, Edge/Orton and Rey/Punk but in the end bar Rey/Punk it was a poor PPV and deserved the low number. F4Way was awful and the numbers reflect it, there was one problem with it, half of the matches were announced on the PPV, if I had have known that Y2J/Bourne or Harts/Usos was on the card I might have actually considered buying it.

Overall I dont think this is that big of a problem for the WWE, they put on 3 poor PPVs and the numbers reflect that but MITB was good and should have a higers number and SSlam is the 2nd biggest PPV of the year and with the card it has should get a good number. It is simple thought if you want good PPV buys put on good PPV's

 

[CrossRhodes]

Not suprised Over the Limit and Fatal 4 Way were completely unnecessary pay per views that sucked really badly. Hopefully they are gone for next year.