WWE Focused on TV Ratings; Not PPV Buys

[Steamboat Ricky]

http://www.wrestlezone.com/news/255445-wwe-changing-focus-to-tv-ratings-over-ppv-buys

PWInsider.com is reporting that WWE is currently focusing on TV ratings, and this is coming directly from Vince McMahon. WWE's primary goal is the various television projects they have going on and not pay-per-view buys.

The plan is to use pay-per-view views to bring in more consistent viewers to the weekly television programs.

Hopefully this hasn't been in WWE's plans over the last several weeks, as the shows have been pretty awful and don't leave much in terms of desire to watch next week's show. If WWE wants better ratings, they need to have legitimate main events instead of a Big Show/Brodus 4 minute squash fest at the end. Nitro was successful, in part, because they had legitimate main event matches on a nightly basis.

Thoughts?

 

[Deadlysyns]

I seriously hope that this is just beginning as well because if not the WWE has a lot to change i mean i haven't watched a full Raw or Smackdown in over a year. These shows just can't keep me entertained. This is hopefully a good move for the WWE because the more people who enjoy an episode of Raw and Smackdown the more buys WWE will get for PPV's

 

[Defekt]

Well, I doubt Cena vs Big show is going to earn many buys, or that Cena vs Lauranitis did, so I guess they are half way there.

RAW opening with a 10 minute Big Show promo doesn't seem like the actions of a company concerned about ratings tho.

 

[mister5000]

I posted this on the comments of the WZ story but I thought I would share it here.

Here is an idea -

The Royal Rumble - 30 man rumble, winner gets title shot, very easy to book & market.

WrestleMania - the biggest PPV of the year, easy to book for & market, where you host celebrities and matches such as Cena vs The Rock

SummerSlam - Where the feuds from the spring and summer come to a head and is also very easy to properly book & market.

Survivor Series - go back to the traditional format. 4 on 4 elimination tag team matches that again, is very easy to book & market.

Now, they say that are interested in increasing their TV ratings. Again, this should be fairly easy to do as well. Once a month outside of January, April, August and November you have a 3 hour RAW. With these 3 hour RAWs you have 8 episodes to build to and work story lines around. In one of the episodes you have the King of the Ring tournament. In another episode you have the MITB match (or you save it for Mania) In another episode you have 2 HIAC main events. In another episode you have 2 elimination chamber matches. One episode you have an extreme rules night where you bring in past ECW competitors to compete or just have all matches competed under extreme rules. One night you have Iron Man night where you have 2 Iron Man main events. One episode is a TLC night where all titles are defended under TLC rules. And one night they can do cage matches or an alumni night.

If they are serious about ratings, produce shows that will garner more viewership. Who wouldn't be interested in tuning in for a 3 hour King of the Ring tournament? Or to see MITB or the Elimination Chamber on free TV. They position these episodes to advertisers as special events, charge a little more for advertising and save money by NOT producing 12 PPVs. It seems like a fairly easy formula and I would be very interested to see how much revenue they actually earn on PPVs these days as opposed to what they could garner from advertisers with my idea.

 

[Uncle Sam]

I know that I'm being a bit cheeky, but could somebody help me with my maths homework? I'm struggling here.

Vince has several million viewers for Monday Night Raw. Vince has several hundred thousand viewers for Over The Limit, the majority of whom already watch Monday Night Raw on a regular basis. Should Vince therefore use Over The Limit to promote Raw?

The first paragraph I can grasp; you have a network to launch and you need some strong television numbers to launch it from. Sure. Fine. Whatever. The second paragraph, how they plan to do it, has just completely passed me by.

The plan is to use pay-per-view views to bring in more consistent viewers to the weekly television programs.

I must be missing something obvious.

 

[ShawnBronald]

First of all, I agree with everyone in saying that if this is true.... WWE isn't doing a very good job. Raw ratings have been at record lows. If this is them trying their hardest, I'm scared to think how bad things might be if they weren't trying.

Secondly, isn't this another bizarre route WCW decided to go? During the MNWs, WCW was so intent on beating Raw in the ratings, they'd put amazing main events on Nitro rather than on PPV. The best example was Hulk Hogan vs Goldberg for the World Heavyweight Championship..... ON FREE TV! That match, at that time, would have probably broken PPV records. Instead, Bischoff wanted to give PPV quality shows on free TV just to win the ratings war with WWE.

This news, again assuming it's true, scares me. First Raw goes to 3 hours and now they're focusing more on TV ratings over PPV buys. I'm very concerned that Vince is repeating history here while mimicking the exact scenarios that many believe ultimately killed WCW. Hopefully I'm wrong.

 

[a member of wwe universe]

how can wwe improve raw ratings when they continuously provide sub par medicore content for the past month.

1) In order for ratings to see significant increase, wwe needs to have their main eventers, star players to carry the show. Big show being the main focal point of raw doesnt do enough to me. This isnt smackdown, the brand where you experiment on midcarders.

Raw has established themselves the premier platform showcasing the popular superstars (Cena, taker, hhh, rock, lesnar). As a casual fan and a partial hardcore fan myself, one of the main reason i watch raw, and not smackdown, is because of those guys.


2)We need good solid midcard feud!!! I dont recall wwe has ever produced any memorable mid card feud. How the hell raw can go on for 3 hour without having a midcard feud? "Feuds" like Miz vs brodus clay, santino vs ricardo etc. are pathetic.

 

[Shotaro]

http://www.wrestlezone.com/news/255445-wwe-changing-focus-to-tv-ratings-over-ppv-buys



Hopefully this hasn't been in WWE's plans over the last several weeks, as the shows have been pretty awful and don't leave much in terms of desire to watch next week's show. If WWE wants better ratings, they need to have legitimate main events instead of a Big Show/Brodus 4 minute squash fest at the end. Nitro was successful, in part, because they had legitimate main event matches on a nightly basis.

Thoughts?

With RAW going to three hours a week it is necessary. It wouldn't make sense for the USA network to allow the show to extend to three hours a week unless it was profitable. Raw is, as evidenced by the fact that it is consistently the most watched cable show on Monday nights, doing reasonably well in the ratings, especially considering that broadcast TV viewership worldwide is falling.

It's also no secret that when the TV ratings are high (as in the better than CW range of ratings) the WWE has a boom period, the 80s, the Attitude Era were both massively profitable and came with highly rated TV shows.

I am not so sure that WWE would be profitable if they switched their focus away from PPV buys, but I think that a switch to higher quality television can only be a good thing, what with the Network still on the horizon (though when did we last hear about that officially) they need people to be investing in watching every week, rather than once a month.

On the other hand this could be bad news. For every great or even above average episode of Raw there are at least three that stink to all hell - maybe not immediately afterwards but over the course of a year. Right now the shows are less than great and they haven't been in my opinion since the early build for Wrestlemania, before that we had the Summer of Punk and before that the Nexus, WWE can make quality storylines and have quality wrestling, but they seem so skittish in their quality control that it's difficult to predict when something great will happen that it's easier to find out the next day and watch it on a DVR than watch it live. (I say the next day because I'm in the UK and it's on at 2am here - in the USA it'd be easier to jump in when something awesome happens because it'd be hapenning right then.)

 

[Fansince1992]

wwe needs to have their main eventers, star players to carry the show. Big show being the main focal point of raw doesnt do enough to me.

What? Big show is now a Main-Eventer though isn't he?

This is what you call Hype! or Building towards a Main-Event!

How does this help the Main Event at No Way Out?

Remember Big Show has just turned on the fans who adored him. Big Show needed some TV time to build himself as Cena's next Monster. It's the same reason Lauranitis was (as some like to say) rammed down our throats. Cena is the biggest draw and his opponents at PPV's need some TV time to build the Main Event. Show needed the 10-15minute opening promo (which he nailed), he also needed to look like he would Bludgeon anyone in his path at the end of Raw (which he nailed) Expect to see The Big Show being the main focal point on Raw for the next few weeks.

 

[alberts35]

Simple, go back to 5 PPV per year....Rumble, WM, KOTR, Slam and SS....have the KOTR winner get a title shot at SummerSlam....and have the Survivor Series be primarily the 4-4 or 5-5 elim matches. Have elim chamber as part of Survivor Series and MITB as part of WM. This makes the TV shows more interesting as the feuds build and build for months, and the PPV's are more interesting in their scarcity. If they were truly more interested in TV ratings, this is what they would do.....if they continue having a PPV every 3 or 4 weeks then they are lying. This is not rocket science.

 

[Alastor]

I think this is probably a shift from putting most of the eggs in the declining PPV revenue basket to diversifying into having more corporate sponsors on regular Raw/Smackdown. The part about using PPVs to obtain more consistent viewers seem like added fluff from 'internet journalists' to try to make them look 'legit'. They probably got the idea from those free pre-PPV matches online.

 

[Steamboat Ricky]

I know that I'm being a bit cheeky, but could somebody help me with my maths homework? I'm struggling here.

Vince has several million viewers for Monday Night Raw. Vince has several hundred thousand viewers for Over The Limit, the majority of whom already watch Monday Night Raw on a regular basis. Should Vince therefore use Over The Limit to promote Raw?

The first paragraph I can grasp; you have a network to launch and you need some strong television numbers to launch it from. Sure. Fine. Whatever. The second paragraph, how they plan to do it, has just completely passed me by.



I must be missing something obvious.

For quite awhile, you could without paying attention to WWE for months at a time, knowing that the only important things happened on PPV. Perhaps Vince is trying to cut this out.

 

[JaylisJayP]

I've always held the belief that if you focused on RAW all along with quality stories, strong character development and actual follow-through on an angle for once, the PPVs will start selling themselves.

Yes, they are basically glorified Raws these days, but honestly they'd sell if there were a sense of excitement and unpredictability brought back into the product as a whole.

WWE wants to be PG, that's fine, they can still do that and be exciting and "edgy" in a different way. They have all the talent and possibilities in the world yet the fail week after week, time after time. With a few exceptions the last 2 years have been a brutal time to watch what WWE is turning into.

They took Punk and made him a PG stooge. Instead of riding a massive wave of possibility to evolve Cena's character and still keep him as the face of WWE even if he wasn't a clear cut "face" as a character anymore, they do everything they can to avoid this by putting him in front of stereotypical heels to transfer the heat. They bury future stars like Ziggler. They put heat on the wrong guys for way too long (Cole). They bring guys like Clay and Ryback in and give them no program and have them do the same thing week after week. I could go on.

You want to improve TV ratings? Fix those things. Then the PPV buyrates will fix themselves and you won't have to focus on that.