Wrestlemania on Free TV??

[Steamboat Ricky]

The Super Bowl does it...why not WWE?

Vince, being the mastermind that he is, do you think it is possible for Wrestlemania to be as profitable an event if it was broadcast on free TV as opposed to PPV? Take last year for instance...the media was buzzing about Mayweather fighting the Big Show, but I really doubt that the casual fan was going to fork over 50 bucks to watch. But who is to say they would not have tuned in if it was aired on NBC?

I think it could be hyped big time...much like the XFL was (which landed KILLER ratings), and as a result, ratings would be high for Mania and Vince could make a lot of money on advertising.

Furthermore, what a better way to get wrestling back into the mainstream? If a national audience was treated to Wrestlemania on free television, who's to say that they wouldn't get hooked and start watching on Monday nights?

Discuss.

 

[Lee]

Whilst that would be better for us I guess, saving quite a bit of money, I can't see it happening. This would be for a few reasons;

1) Being a Brit, watching the Superbowl is the most annoying thing because of the commercials. Stopping and starting the biggest PPV of the year would annoy me so so much.

2) Where would you put the commercials in? Throw a commercial, come back, heel has face in a hold....if it's Mania you want to see EVERYTHING

3) WWE's stance on this

Zero Commercials
The cost for a 30-second spot during Super Bowl XLIII? Three million dollars. For that reason alone, commercials have taken on nearly as much significance as the game, if not more. Throw in the over-hyped halftime show, and the 60 minutes of actual football action becomes an afterthought. At WrestleMania, matches are never overshadowed by anything, especially not by a bunch of Budweiser horses.

So sorry Ricky, as much as I love you, I don't love that idea.

 

[Mr. TM]

Yeah it is a good idea to save money, it would get annoying after a while. Commercials are a pain right now on TV and I do not want them cutting into my Wrestlemania. Superbowl makes a ton of money off of commercials, but they also have a ton of people wanting their name on a product. The WWE doesn't have that luxury.

The Super Bowl brings in great numbers, but the interesting thing would be to see how many people bought it on Pay Per View. But this may be another issue for another day.

 

[Steamboat Ricky]

Whilst that would be better for us I guess, saving quite a bit of money, I can't see it happening. This would be for a few reasons;

1) Being a Brit, watching the Superbowl is the most annoying thing because of the commercials. Stopping and starting the biggest PPV of the year would annoy me so so much.

2) Where would you put the commercials in? Throw a commercial, come back, heel has face in a hold....if it's Mania you want to see EVERYTHING

3) WWE's stance on this



So sorry Ricky, as much as I love you, I don't love that idea.

The commercials could air in-between matches. Or they could do a split screen kind of thing. The commercials interrupting the action would NOT be an issue if WWE has any brains. We're talking straight marketability and profitability, here.

Would you be more prone to like the idea if streams didn't exist??

Most people have heard of Wrestlemania, and it's a PPV-only event. I'm arguing that Wrestlemania could be almost as big as the Super Bowl if it was aired on free television.

 

[klunderbunker]

Sadly enough, it would never happen. We all complain about how Raw has so many commercials already. How bad would it be for a major event? There's something special about hearing JR say We are live on Pay Per View! It's a staple of Wrestlemania. With the Superbowl, the game has various pauses in it, such as timeouts or injuries, etc. Wrestlemania is a much more fluid event. It's a decent idea in theory, but not a very practical one.

 

[Steamboat Ricky]

Who complains about too many commercials on Raw? The only time I complained was when they aired Afro-Samurai like 8 times throughout the broadcast.

The thing is...after a lengthy match which likely consists of the viewer drinking a beer/soda/beverage of some sort and eating some wings/pizza/delish food, that viewer needs to get up, go to the bathroom, grab another snack, and come back refreshed and ready for the next match. It's brutal to sit through an entire 4 hour PPV without a break.

Take No Way Out for example. Most people were complaining about HBK/JBL and the ECW match as being DEAD. I couldn't focus on the match because they just had the first EC match and Shaneo v. Orton. I was EXHAUSTED and almost in a trance, as I there was NO break from the telecast except for perhaps a Mania commercial. I think a bit of non-wrestling distraction would be good for the viewer to enjoy the entire broadcast.

And this still does not take into account the far greater audience that could be subjected to Wrestlemania if it was aired on free TV.

 

[Mr. TM]

But usually on Pay Per View, there is times to go take a break. They usually split matches up with some back stage news and diva matches.

As for Raw, I have watched a few American broadcasts and I must say, there are a ton of commercials, and they are the same ones over and over. Afro Sumeria this week, pizza pockets next week. It is horrendous. In Canada, it is on a sports channel, so we at least get to see some scoreboards in between.

And really, Network TV and the WWE do not go well together. Saturday Night Mian Event bombs, I really don't think the average person would really want to watch it if they don't like the product.

 

[Steamboat Ricky]

Saturday Night's Main Event is BURIED. I didn't even really know when the last one was on. Why? Because I'm sure Vince could care less about advertising for it. The reward would not be worth the money spent.

But this is WRESTLEMANIA. Not SNME and not even a really good episode of Raw. It's the biggest show WWE does. Vince has an in with Dick Ebersol, so I'm sure they could make it work. Just think back at the XFL...the ratings were ENORMOUS because of the hype and the advertising for it. Wrestlemania could be the same...and it would fare far better in the long-term than the XFL did because the quality of the entertainment would be much greater.

 

[Phoenix]

The only possible way I could see it happening is if there was an advertising-free channel on TV. Companies could sponsor for in PPV ads and get money there for WWE. In England we have the BBC which I find more fun to watch than most of the commerical filled channels.

Though I remember when they did show some WWE PPVs on TV, they had it on Channel 4 and they did random breaks through it, though you didn't miss out on anything, once the ad finished, right back to where you left it.

 

[secret titan]

Another thing they could do is just have the the wreslters cut their own commercials for the product.........


Just think........ DX selling the Sham-wow! lol


Of course I would prefer it stay on PPV, even though I can't watch it. I'd rather only pay $10 and see it at a bar.

 

[OIL]

It won't happen & shouldn't. The WWE wouldn't profit from it at all. They make a bomb from PPV purchases, so why stop? I bet you the reason last year's WM didn't do as well is because of the price. I heard $50 for America. Fuck that. No-one is going to fork that much out. If WM was anything over £20 in England I wouldn't purchase it. Not worth it. Therefore, the WWE should reduce the price of WM, and then they'll be fine. Why give it away on free TV? For all the annoying adverts that come on every 5 minutes?

 

[justinsayne]

Th eonly way I could see this ever happening would be if NBC or whoever got the rights to air it, guaranteed Vince a shit load of money up front plus a shit load off of what would be made from advertising as well, and I don't see that happening, not now, or anytime soon, I just can't see Vince doing this with WM, if Vince was going to try and give a free PPV away on TV why wouldn't try with a "B" PPV, something like Cyber Sunday, or ONS, or even Backlash, really if Vince were even going to try tis the best time would've been in the late 90s early 00s, when Wrestling was at it's most popular, and the demand for something like this was at it's highest

 

[Tastycles]

I just can't see it happening to be honest. The XFL gained mega ratings, but it was tapping into the NFL's audience. If you never watched wrestling, you wouldn't care about the significance of HHH vs Orton, it would mean nothing.

WrestleMania typically gets a rating of about 1.1 million buys. That is $55 million in the bank. For them to make that back in advertising, it would take 9 minutes of advertiswing for Superbowl prices. Given that the Superbowl rating is usually somewhere in the region of 40.0, then the WWE would have to increse its audience 10 fold in order to make the same kind of money.

A far more realistic estimate is around 10.0, which would mean roughly 4 times as many adverts, which would mean that there would be a total of 36 minutes worth. To cut the show down by that length of time, would be to seriously dampen the entertainment value of it.

I just don't think it makes financial sense to give the best wrestling show of the year away for free. The idea would work well for the Royal Rumble though, I think. It would have mainstream appeal, because the match is exciting throughout, and also it doesn't draw as many PPV buys, so there'd be less money to make up.