WrestleMania XXX Buys: A Little Good News?

[Jack-Hammer]

Over the course of the past few months, WWE's stock has taken a pretty severe beating. At one point, it was worth almost $32 per share and it closed at approximately $11 as of today. A lot of the stock problems started to come about after the announcement of the number of subscribers of the WWE Network was revealed on April 8.

According to PWInsider.com, there's a little good news concerning the buyrate and total viewership of this year's big show. The site is reporting that there were 690,000 buys for WrestleMania XXX. Previously, WWE reported that there were about 400,000 domestic buys, so it's unknown if 690,000 is the total number of buys for the show or if it's the updated numbers for the domestic buys only. Just a guess on my part, but I'm guessing it's the updated number of domestic buys. Since the WWE Network isn't available internationally yet and WrestleMania has, traditionally, generated international buys alone totaling several hundred thousand, I don't know why it'd be any different this year. So IF the 690,000 buys are the updated domestic numbers, coupled with the 667,000+ who watched the show via the WWE Network, that comes to a viewership of 1.35 million. Even if the 690,000 is domestic & international buys combined, that still gives WM XXX a huge number.

 

[mlp420]

The 690,000 does include international buys. Even worse, the international buys were down over 100,000 even though the network isn't even available outside the US yet. The international number could be down because a lot of people overseas have somehow gotten the network already, which would be an utter disaster.

 

[TheOneAndOnlyGOAT]

I'm positive that The WWE Network will fail.

I just don't see it working, they're going to lose more money than they make and the numbers show that.

It all depends on how much subscribers they're going to get when they release it worldwide.

I think Next Year's Mania also will be crucial for the future of the WWE Network and depending on how much this match will draw:

 

[ncb619]

People like me
Granted, I'd never legally bought a PPV until the Network (if you could call it legal), so could be a small blessing in disguise to combat pirated streams

 

[laodaron]

The Network is available to anyone with an American proxy, an American address, or just someone's login information. At this point in technological movements, it's impossible to give a clear picture of buyrates, which is very bad news for investors right now. However, the WWE needs to roll out the full international WWE Network ASAP in order to stop the damage.

 

[jacdnwarrior]

I'm positive that The WWE Network will fail.

I just don't see it working, they're going to lose more money than they make and the numbers show that.

It all depends on how much subscribers they're going to get when they release it worldwide.

I think Next Year's Mania also will be crucial for the future of the WWE Network and depending on how much this match will draw:

Absolutely agree. He supposedly lost anywhere from $350- 842 million (if you can believe the reports) in 2 months due to the stock price falling. If Vince wants to have a network, he needs to stop relying solely on wrestling fans and put on programming that appeals to a wider audience. It just doesn't seem as though Vince is willing to do pay out the money to do that . The wrestling fanbase isn't as great as it used to be and doesn't have the money that he thinks they have to sustain his company as a corporate entity or keep his network on air with his limited programming schedule.

 

[Ace Amoeba]

It's good news indeed as they are expanding internationally. The WWE Network will put the company at a loss for the short term, but in the long term it will be very profitable. The DirecTV situation doesn't help matters, but forced people to buy the network so that's a negative turning into a positive in my humble opinion.