Wrestling TV Ratings, PPV buys, and Financial Information Contained Here

[Slyfox696]

Presuming that this upload works, the following .zip file contains information on TV ratings for WWE's Monday Night Raw, Smackdown, and ECW shows. It will contain WCW Nitro and Thunder TV ratings, as well as original ECW TV ratings. It includes TV ratings for Clash of the Champions and Saturday Night Main Event. It also will have WWE PPV buys for every show of the last 3 years, as well as revenue generated from those shows, and will also contain as many PPV buys from previous years that I could find. Finally, it also contains WWE financial information, including merchandising revenue from the year 2002 through 2007.

All of this information is presented in the form of Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, with the information organized as neatly as possible. I have not included sources for this information, as I graduated college already and did not feel like citing sources. If you have any questions about where I got my information, you can PM me, and I can direct you as best as I can. Some information has comes from sources which have been since removed from the web due to their age, but I will help the best I can.


To access this file, just left click on the link and save the file. You can use WinZip, WinAce, or if you have Windows XP you can just right click on the file and click "extract". If you have any problems accessing or downloading this file, let me know.


Updates in this version:

1) Updated ratings
2) Live Event Statistics
3) Revised numbers and figures in Financial Information
4) Total Domestic PPV Buys added into Attitude Era years


As before, if you have any questions, feel free to ask, and I will try to answer them as best I can.


EDIT: On the Financial Information spreadsheet, you'll notice "Fiscal" and "Transition". The WWE used to have their fiscal year end in April, I believe, so when you see "Fiscal 2000", that means that information covers from April 1999-April 2000. In 2006, the WWE changed to just using a standard year to measure their finances, so when you see "Transitional 2006", that represents the 8 months or so from the end of Fiscal 2006, to the end of December 2006 (so, approximately, May 06-Dec 06). Starting in 2007, the information is just from Jan-Dec.

Hope that makes sense, if you actually care.

 

[Ambiguous Turd]

I just wanted to say that I certainly appreciate this information being made available to the posters at Wrestlezone.

For a couple years, I have looked for a one stop place that contains all the general information pertaining to company ratings, as well as financial data, to utilize in my posts.

The only thing that would make it even better (and more complete), would be PPV Buyrates as well as the number of Buys for each event. Is this information also easily accessible to Wrestlezone, so that it can be included in the spreadsheet?

There are a few sites out there that have bits and pieces of information. Some more than others, obviously. But it would be great, as stated, if we could provide a one stop shop for the posters on this forum.

 

[Slyfox696]

The only thing that would make it even better (and more complete), would be PPV Buyrates as well as the number of Buys for each event. Is this information also easily accessible to Wrestlezone, so that it can be included in the spreadsheet?

I'm not sure I understand what you're asking for. PPV buys are given for PPVs for the last couple of years, and I'm afraid I don't know where to get information before that. And PPV buyrates (like a .64) are pointless if you have the total number of buys.

There are a few sites out there that have bits and pieces of information. Some more than others, obviously. But it would be great, as stated, if we could provide a one stop shop for the posters on this forum.

That was my goal when I first started this project. This isn't a Wrestlezone project, this is just something that I started doing for my benefit, because when I first started here, I argued ratings, PPV buys, and such quite a bit, and so I collected all the information together for myself. Then, I decided to give what I had to the forum. So, like I said, this isn't a collective WZ effort, just the effort I put in, which is many many hours.

If there is any information that you think would be good, I'd be glad to hear what that is. I mean, I COULD include PPV buyrates, but when people see a buyrate for Wrestlemania 3 that is a 10.2, then they think that a WHOLE lot more people watched that Wrestlemania than they did Wrestlemania 21, because 21 only did a 2.+ buy rate. And then you have to go through and explain WHY the buyrates are skewed like that. I just thought it would be better to give the actual PPV buys, instead of buyrates, for that reason.

Is that the information you were asking about?

 

[Ambiguous Turd]

I'm not sure I understand what you're asking for. PPV buys are given for PPVs for the last couple of years, and I'm afraid I don't know where to get information before that. And PPV buyrates (like a .64) are pointless if you have the total number of buys.

That was my goal when I first started this project. This isn't a Wrestlezone project, this is just something that I started doing for my benefit, because when I first started here, I argued ratings, PPV buys, and such quite a bit, and so I collected all the information together for myself. Then, I decided to give what I had to the forum. So, like I said, this isn't a collective WZ effort, just the effort I put in, which is many many hours.

If there is any information that you think would be good, I'd be glad to hear what that is. I mean, I COULD include PPV buyrates, but when people see a buyrate for Wrestlemania 3 that is a 10.2, then they think that a WHOLE lot more people watched that Wrestlemania than they did Wrestlemania 21, because 21 only did a 2.+ buy rate. And then you have to go through and explain WHY the buyrates are skewed like that. I just thought it would be better to give the actual PPV buys, instead of buyrates, for that reason.

Is that the information you were asking about?

Buys would absolutely be sufficient. Buyrates are simply interesting to compare from year to year, to use as a gauge for the increasing number of homes that received cable year after year.

So where as the number of buys for Mania 3 may not be particularly impressive, it most certainly was when looking at the actual buyrate ... in comparison to the number of homes that actually had cable available.

If I had to have one over the other, I would pick buys. But both are truly ideal.

Kudos to you for doing all that on your own and compiling the data all together. That's one of the biggest contributions I've seen from anyone on the forum, and definitely one of the best tools on the forum.

I actually have saved the spreadsheet, and update the ratings on a weekly basis, now.

 

[Slyfox696]

Buys would absolutely be sufficient. Buyrates are simply interesting to compare from year to year, to use as a gauge for the increasing number of homes that received cable year after year.

So where as the number of buys for Mania 3 may not be particularly impressive, it most certainly was when looking at the actual buyrate ... in comparison to the number of homes that actually had cable available.

If I had to have one over the other, I would pick buys. But both are truly ideal.

Kudos to you for doing all that on your own and compiling the data all together. That's one of the biggest contributions I've seen from anyone on the forum, and definitely one of the best tools on the forum.

I actually have saved the spreadsheet, and update the ratings on a weekly basis, now.

Well, I appreciate your kudos. If you look in that folder, you should see a spreadsheet titled "WWE PPV Buyrates", which I believe is the information you are looking for. The buys go back until about 2001, I believe. The problem with getting buys before then is that the WWF/E wasn't a publicly traded company, and thus, had no reason to ever release the buys of the PPVs. But, you should have several years worth of PPV buys in one of those spreadsheets.