The UK & Ireland Finally Gets The Network...

[Johnny Scumm]

Starting Monday, Jan. 19, WWE will make WWE Network available in the United Kingdom and Ireland. WWE Network will be directly available on Web, iOS and Android devices, gaming consoles, Smart TVs and digital media players – just in time to watch Royal Rumble 2015 on your big screen TV.

Watch Mr. McMahon's message

Visit WWE.com on Jan. 19 to sign up.

WWE Network will be available £9.99 in the U.K. and €12.99 in Ireland with no commitment.

Thank you for your patience in awaiting the WWE Network launch.

At last, is all I can say! The UK & Ireland are finally getting the WWE Network, in just over 2 weeks. Before the Royal Rumble, the British & Irish WWE fans will be able to get their 24/7 fix, for the low price of £9.99. Yes, it's still the same price with a pound sign on the end, BUT I see a bright side;

Sky Sports Box Office have recently announced that their PPV prices will be going up to £19.95, compared to the £14.95 they were in 2014. This means that if we sign up to the Network on the 19th, we'll be able to get our Rumble for only £9.99, along with the rest of the PPV's in 2015. WWE have timed this announcement perfectly so they can deter fans away from paying almost £20 for a PPV monthly, by paying £9.99 for a PPV, along with all of the extras they can reap every month!

What are your thoughts? Good move for the WWE? Will the UK fans sign up? (Surely, they have to...)(

 

[philipk2011]

I was happy when I saw this until I saw the price. It's an absolute disgrace that I've got to pay over 50% more than the rest of Europe and the US just because I live in Ireland.

Why can't WWE just charge us the same price? I was planning to buy the Network since it was 1st announced in what seems like forever ago but not a chance now.

And no it's not because I can't afford it, but simply out of principle as I hate the way they're screwing us over like this. 1st it was the delay with no notice whatsoever and now this.

Once again WWE showing that they couldn't give a damn about their fans over here.

 

[PeterSellersSTL]

Look on the bright side man, you get to live in Ireland

 

[pkrebel]

I was happy when I saw this until I saw the price. It's an absolute disgrace that I've got to pay over 50% more than the rest of Europe and the US just because I live in Ireland.

Why can't WWE just charge us the same price? I was planning to buy the Network since it was 1st announced in what seems like forever ago but not a chance now.

And no it's not because I can't afford it, but simply out of principle as I hate the way they're screwing us over like this. 1st it was the delay with no notice whatsoever and now this.

Once again WWE showing that they couldn't give a damn about their fans over here.

I know right, it's ridiculous. wwe making huge profit, convert €12.99 into dollars its $15.50, Wwe ripping Ireland off, won't be subscribing.

 

[pkrebel]

Just converted it from pounds too and UK getting ripped off too, why should both Ireland and UK have to pay more when it's converted to dollars than the rest of europe. Would it have something to do with paying off SkySports??

 

[Stone Cold Tea]

Are you actually serious? You're complaining about being charged 'over' even though clearly you're not. Regardless even if we was it equates to have the price of what it would cost to by a god damn wrestlemania dvd after release and you wanna bitch and moan? All the content we'll be getting on the network at such a low low price. When i first heard they were going to be releasing a network i was concerned that the price would be somewhere between 20-30 pounds a month but at 9 frickin 99 it's an absolute steal and a no brainer in my opinion. Its okay though you continue with your grainy downloads and paying full ppv price whilst me and a majority of others save tonnes of cash. I think you just wanted a reason to complain. Dick

 

[ShowOffHEEL]

Bitching about the price? Go pay full price for the PPV's and DVD releases then..

 

[Navi]

I live in Canada and we get our's through our cable provider. All I know is in four months, we've watched 4 PPV's live, and my son has watched tons of PPV's that he missed. It seems to be the only two channels we watch in this house anymore. I've paid a grand total of $40.00 over 4 months. It would have cost me more than that for one PPV, if we hadn't subscribed.

So if you want to continue to pay full price for each and every PPV, or try to get a stream that most times get's cut off in the middle, then go for gold. You've waited a long time for this to come, and bitching about the price now, which is a bargain, is ridiculous.

 

[Straightfromthehart]

As I'm sure many have seen the network has an official release date in the uk and Ireland of 19th January. The cost in the uk is higher than the U.S. at £9.99 which is almost 3 dollars more per month.

Clearly a deal has been done with sky, this is even clearer as "sky go" which is the online side of sky here in the uk now has a catch up service to watch raw online. As of now you can watch the last 3 episodes of raw on the sky go app, which was never previously available, and this must be part of the deal that the wwe has made with sky to lessen the hit the network will have on sky viewing figures.

It also suggest that any last minute pulling of the plug is very unlikely....

We shall see on the 19th jan I suppose.

 

[Creepy Old Man]

Sky are getting a portion. WWE advertised the Network as $9.99 in the UK (about £6.50) before they pulled it 20 minutes before the launch. Now it's £9.99 because Murdoch wants his share.

Not sure it's worth it. Pay-per-views are only £14.95 here, and I think I'd rather pay a little more for a pay-per-view on a 100% infallible TV channel, rather than a jittery internet stream. All the historical stuff you can get for free, if you know the dark side of the web.

 

[JDHale]

Sky are getting a portion. WWE advertised the Network as $9.99 in the UK (about £6.50) before they pulled it 20 minutes before the launch. Now it's £9.99 because Murdoch wants his share.

Not sure it's worth it. Pay-per-views are only £14.95 here, and I think I'd rather pay a little more for a pay-per-view on a 100% infallible TV channel, rather than a jittery internet stream. All the historical stuff you can get for free, if you know the dark side of the web.

I had the same mindset as you until I heard that Sky are raising there prices up to £19.99 for WWE PPV's, starting with the Royal Rumble later this month. If they do, and considering that the WWE Network comes with no commitment, I'd rather pay the initial month for the Rumble and then pay for the month with WrestleMania, as it ultimately means saving £20, rather then spending £40 on them two PPVs alone. Just something I'd watch out for if I were you, as it's shaping up to look as if the Network is gonna be an extremely good deal for us considering the raise in prices that have been planned.

 

[Straightfromthehart]

I had the same mindset as you until I heard that Sky are raising there prices up to £19.99 for WWE PPV's, starting with the Royal Rumble later this month. If they do, and considering that the WWE Network comes with no commitment, I'd rather pay the initial month for the Rumble and then pay for the month with WrestleMania, as it ultimately means saving £20, rather then spending £40 on them two PPVs alone. Just something I'd watch out for if I were you, as it's shaping up to look as if the Network is gonna be an extremely good deal for us considering the raise in prices that have been planned.

You are indeed correct
http://www1.skysports.com/other-spo...watch-the-2015-event-on-sky-sports-box-office

£19.95 obviously a move to raise as much as possible, as the buy rate will drop without a doubt. Strange move by sky, they are taking a risk with that.

 

[rge2010]

I am from the UK but I think we can have zero complaints about paying a little bit more than our American cousins. Our PPV's have cost around £15 for the last decade and the USA have had to pay around $50.

My guessing is BSkyB are taking a cut from every subscription in line with the deal they struck with WWE last year. I don't like BSkyB but they paid a lot of money for exclusivity of WWE products on the programming so it is only fair they receive a cut and unfortunately it is the consumer footing the bill.

£9.99 is fine for me. I will subscribe for 30 days from January 23rd to February 22nd which means I will bet getting Royal Rumble and Fast Lane. Then I will subscribe again late March until late April meaning I get Wrestlemania 31 and Extreme Rules - for only £9.99.

£19.98 for 4 WWE PPV's including Rumble and Mania, a shit load of exclusive programming, re runs of Raw & Smackdown, on demand PPV's from yesteryear - seems like a decent package to me. And folk are moaning that the USA get this for around £6 cheaper?

 

[tomthebodz]

I'll definitely subscribe, mainly to watch old Raw and Smackdown from the late 90s early 2000s and then the PPVs but I'll probably watch them on the Monday evening instead of watching live.

How much old WCW is there on the Network, would love to watch Nitros from when I first started watching wrestling.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

I'll definitely be ordering this. It's slightly more expensive than the US have to pay, but it's still only £10 a month, thats not even the price of 2 drinks in some bars over here. I'm more than happy with that.

There is a huge list of shows I want to watch (or rewatch). I'm going to watch all the PPVs from about 97 onwards, look into the old Nitro's and Raw/SDs from the Atttude Era again, and then finally be able to watch good quality recordings of WCW and ECW PPVs.... I can't wait!

This will save so much money on buying WWE DVD releases. For example, if a new Austin DVD comes out, instead of spending money on the actual disc, just look up the match listing and then find those matches on the WWE Network. Boom!

I'll be fucking fuming if this gets pulled again though, but I really doubt that will happen as WWE know they'll lose alot of fans if the UK audience get screwed again, and they wouldn't announce the launch if they were not ABSOLUTELY sure everything was sorted.

Fingers crossed the launch works without any problems.

 

[Mustang Sally]

It will be interesting to see if this dramatically impacts WWE's hopes & expectations of exceeding 1 million subscribers. Whenever Raw and Smackdown emanate from the UK, the crowds seem so enthusiastic. I've always had the notion they appreciate what they're seeing....and hope that translates to buying the network.

Obviously, there are far fewer households in the UK than U.S. and it would be fun to know what percentage of those households order the network, as opposed to the U.S. That might not be a statistic that gets imparted to us, but you can bet your buttons WWE will know the answer.

 

[TML3:16]

I'll be getting the network if it all works out this time. It's not only the savings on PPV's but I'm tempted to get rid of sky sports all together. £9.99 a month is better than the £30+ for sports plus the extra £19+ on PPV's. It's a no brainier as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Navi]

It will be interesting to see if this dramatically impacts WWE's hopes & expectations of exceeding 1 million subscribers. Whenever Raw and Smackdown emanate from the UK, the crowds seem so enthusiastic. I've always had the notion they appreciate what they're seeing....and hope that translates to buying the network.

Obviously, there are far fewer households in the UK than U.S. and it would be fun to know what percentage of those households order the network, as opposed to the U.S. That might not be a statistic that gets imparted to us, but you can bet your buttons WWE will know the answer.

The fanbase for the WWE in the UK is huge, but I hear your concern. A lot of my friends there already have the network through proxy servers. They got it the week it launched in the US and have been watching it ever since.

The numbers that the WWE puts out there already include those that they think are American, when in reality they aren't. The number I would be worried about more is the fact that not as many American households actually signed up as previously thought. Also a number of my US friends cancelled their subscriptions after the mandatory 6 month sign up was required. They found that they could watch it on as someone else said "the dark side of the net" for nothing. And they weren't really missing anything at all.

In saying that though I do subscribe to the network here in Canada thorough my cable provider and we are quite happy with it. We don't have all the content the US has, but it's getting there. More than enough to watch as it is.

 

[rge2010]

Killam, that 'journo' on the WZ main page has reported the UK network is available now. Any truth in this or has he taken Twitter as gospel and not researched properly because it isn't on the Apple store!!!! Not sure about Xbox though...

 

[jameswalsh292]

I'm living in Ireland and I got the network yesterday after I noticed on this site that you could get it early. I like it. There's a lot of content and I'm gonna enjoy watching a lot of the old ppvs.

The only 2 issues I had was 1: there was a lot of buffering going on when I was watching the Monday night wars, but that could be just my internet. 2: I'm not 100% certain of this but it looks like they don't show live raws. That's disappointing for me because I don't have sky sports for the last year and have been streaming raw. Other then that it's great value for the ppvs alone. I normally just get the royal rumble and wrestlemania.