WWE Posts Latest PPV Buyrates

[Jack-Hammer]

WWE is making it's second quarterly financial report today, I believe, and they've released information regarding buyrates for WrestleMania, Extreme Rules & Payback.

WrestleMania 29 - 1,039,000 buys

Extreme Rules - 231,000 buys

Payback - 186,000 buys

Generally speaking, these are good numbers for all three shows. The buys for WrestleMania & Extreme Rules were lower this year compared to 2012. WrestleMania XXVIII drew, I believe, 1,250,000 buys. However, when you consider that WWE jacked up the price of WM for this year, I'd say any difference in revenue was made up even though the show drew over 200,000less buys. Extreme Rules was down from 263,000 buys in 2012, but 231,000 buts for what's definitely a B show is still quite good. Payback, which replaced Over The Limit during this time period, was up 19,000 viewers compared to OTL last year. So when you factor in the increased price for WrestleMania with the increased buys for Payback compared to OTL, I'd say WWE's ppv business is on par with what they did at this time last year.

 

[Dagger Dias]

I honestly expected Payback to do better than that. It had several title matches and a 3 Stages of Hell match. I figured it would at the very least have generated 200,000 buys. I'm glad it did better than the Over the Limit edition from last year though, it may indicate that Payback is here to stay as a brand. Other than that, the numbers are about what I expected. Wrestlemania 29 still did very well, Wrestlemania 28 was a very tough act to follow with the year-long hype for its main event. If these are how Extreme Rules and Payback's numbers look then I will be very interested in seeing how Money In the Bank, Summerslam, and Night of Champions end up doing. Battleground, Hell In a Cell, and the remainder of the year's shows I don't expect very high numbers for at this time but that of course is subject to change if something awesome happens between now and then though.

 

[Nikeo]

Are those just the American buys or are they the total international buys? I think purely looking at American buys (as well as IWC sites that just look at US ratings) is quite nonsensical as it only gives you an idea of how the company is doing in one of their markets.

 

[Mustang Sally]

When thinking about WWE PPVs, I always wonder about the cost-effectiveness of their pricing. For instance, it seems obvious that cutting the cost in half wouldn't result in twice as many buys.....yet, how much benefit would the company get from a $5 reduction?..... $10? In tough economic times, people can afford less, yet how would price reductions translate to the buy rate?

I have no recollection of what the first Wrestlemania cost, but I can remember the initial "In Your House" PPVs went for $9.95....then $14.95.....then $19.95. As an increase in percentage, it was enormous and you'd think it would have resulted in a buyer backlash, but it didn't, did it? They lured us in with inexpensive PPVs in the early days, then socked it to us ever since.

Of course, everything I've just said is belied by the Wrestlemania buys of the past two years. The highest price of the year results in such ridiculously high buy rates that you might figure WWE can charge anything they want for every event and come out ahead. Obviously, that's not so, although the results point to the notion that Wrestlemania is a major, world-wide event....a true happening that has established it's own place in the world culture. Now, that's an achievement.

However, the other 11 PPVs still present the problem of fluctuating buy rates and the company probably scratches it's collective head in consternation, trying to figure why WM is so successful while they struggle to get folks to buy the others.

I wonder if lowering the cost and advertising that they did would help. Could they run "sales" for the minor PPVs, including promoting that "If you order 10 days before the event, we'll knock $10 off the price!"

See what effect that has on the buy rate....and determine whether the revenue lost from each order is more than made up by additional sales. Just a thought.

In my own case, the exorbitant cost of the minor PPVs stops me from ordering them. If they broke the price for some of 'em, I might be persuaded to change my mind. Depends on how attractive the card is, I suppose.

 

[Wald]

I honestly think the drop in Wrestlemania buys is simply down to the main events.

Last year you have Cena vs Rock 1 with Triple H vs Undertaker in Hell in a Cell with HBK as ref. No-one knew how the Rock vs Cena match would go and the addition of Michaels to the mix made it seem like the Undertaker was in genuine risk of losing.

This year we had Cena vs Rock 2 and Punk vs Undertaker. I doubt anyone thought we'd get anything other than Cena and Taker wins in those two matches and so it would persuade some not to bother.

 

[Nate DaMac]

I honestly think the drop in Wrestlemania buys is simply down to the main events.

Last year you have Cena vs Rock 1 with Triple H vs Undertaker in Hell in a Cell with HBK as ref. No-one knew how the Rock vs Cena match would go and the addition of Michaels to the mix made it seem like the Undertaker was in genuine risk of losing.

This year we had Cena vs Rock 2 and Punk vs Undertaker. I doubt anyone thought we'd get anything other than Cena and Taker wins in those two matches and so it would persuade some not to bother.

I doubt it had anything to do with the predictability of the outcomes. 28 featured The Rock vs. Cena for the first time. It's not going to do the same numbers the second time around. Now if they would have held off on Triple H vs. Brock Lesnar until Wrestlemania, I bet we would have seen higher buyrates since that was something we hadn't seen before.

 

[Gavschenko]

I doubt it had anything to do with the predictability of the outcomes. 28 featured The Rock vs. Cena for the first time. It's not going to do the same numbers the second time around. Now if they would have held off on Triple H vs. Brock Lesnar until Wrestlemania, I bet we would have seen higher buyrates since that was something we hadn't seen before.

It definitely did have to do with the predictability a lot of people before wm when the matches were announced said they weren't going to buy it due to the predictability they were gonna stream it and im sure that's what they did, its was the most predictable wrestlemania of all time except for I thought Ryback would beat henry.

 

[rge2010]

I dont mind the themed PPV's but going down to 6 PPV's a year would make them feel special again.

Rumble, Mania, Summerslam, Survivor Series = yes please. I would then have Elimination Chamber and Money In The Bank. The rest can go as far as I am concerned.

 

[MCMG]

I dont mind the themed PPV's but going down to 6 PPV's a year would make them feel special again.

Rumble, Mania, Summerslam, Survivor Series = yes please. I would then have Elimination Chamber and Money In The Bank. The rest can go as far as I am concerned.

The quality of PPV this year has actually been quite good. I enjoyed Payback, MITB and Extreme Rules. Royal Rumble was predictable, Elimination Chamber was solid and WM29 slightly disappointing but still good. If the WWE can churn out good quality PPV's that are making money, I have absolutely no problem with them having 12 a year (the two in October is a bit weird)

In fact, a space of two months between PPV would be far too long. Having regular PPV's improves the turnaround of storylines which helps avoid some average feuds getting boring.

In an ideal world I would have; Rumble, Elimination Chamber, Mania, Extreme Rules, MITB, SummerSlam, HIAC, Survivor Series, TLC. Two months for Mania and Summerlsam which is as it should be. Elimination Chamber, MITB, Hell in a Cell and TLC are all good gimmick PPVs which deliver exciting matches.

The buyrates are solid which is good news. I was wondering what effect the increased use of internet streaming has had on buyrates. I would imagine that it would hurt figures but I suppose it is only a small number.