WWE Television and Brand Positioning in the UK

[johnbragg]

http://www.wrestlezone.com/news/article/press-release-wwe-and-the-uk-sign-a-new-tv-deal-91443

The link is to a story that WWE and Sky Sports' parent have renewed their agreement. I'm wondering whether the guy in charge of WWE International is doing a good job of positioning WWE in Britain.

Where is Sky Sports in the British channel pecking order? What I mean is, does it come with the standard fee, get 30-40 channels package, with the "pay more get 100 channels" package, or is it something you pay a couple pounds a month for specifically all by itself?

From the press release, I'd guess that Sky Sports is one of the 30-40 channels you'd get, Sky1 you'd get with the 100 channel package and Sky Box Office you'd pay an extra monthly fee for by itself. Is that about right? Or is Sky Box Office their way of saying "pay per view"?

Questions the second, what kind of timeslots do Raw and Smackdown have on Sky Sports? From discussions in the TNA section, you get the idea that Raw is on at 3 a.m. Is it carried live at, er, 2 a.m.-4 a.m.? Or is that exaggerated? If it is carried live, is there a replay at some sane hour? What about Smackdown?

And how does that compare to the channel and timeslot for TNA Impact?

 

[Blade]

Ok, this is a tough question to answer. American TV packages are alot different from English TV packages. Sky TV is satelite TV, and Sky Sports costs a little extra. There's 4 Sky Sports channels (If Sky Sports Xtra is included.)

Sky Sports is pretty much the biggest only-sport TV channel in England and probably Europe. It's the channel that's perfect for WWE. Obviously, since there's 3 channels, all of the channels show different programmes, with Sky Sports 1 showing the most watched programmes and Sky Sports 3 showing the least watched programmes. But WWE programming moves around the 3 channels, depending on what time of the year it is and what other sporting events are on at the time. Overall, the channel gets millions of viewers and WWE fits in nicely in their programming schedule. Raw is usually shown live and Smackdown is just after prime time, usually 10 - till midnight I think. PPVs are usually shown on Sky Box Office, but the smaller PPVs can be free on Sky Sports.

TNA is on Bravo. It's a very small channel, and is not very big. It's on Sky satellite too, but it's not known by anyone who doesn't have Sky TV. But among Sky TV customers, it is quite well known and is generally regarded as being the top 15 entertainment channels available on Sky satellite, albeit and the low end of the top 15. But it also gets prime time on Saturday nights. Also, the PPVs are shown free on Bravo, but we have to wait 3 or 4 days after they've aired in America to get them.

Unfortunately for Bravo though, the other popular entertainment channels put on strong programming at prime time on Saturday nights. That being said, I do think Impact is one of Bravo's biggest shows, they just need to switch it to a different day.

But TNA's place in British TV is tiny compared to Sky. Sky Sports is one of the biggest, most respected and well known channels over here, sport-based or otherwise. Bravo is a small channel, though it is making a name for itself. I don't know what it's like in America in terms of Raw's channel vs Impact's channel, but I feel the comparison is quite similar to over here.

 

[CHAOS]

Sky Sports is one of the biggest channels in the UK so yes the guy in charge of WWE International had done well there. I believe Sky Sports comes in a package deal when you buy Sky, I think you choose 2 or 3 packages from Entertainment, Sport, Music, News e.t.c. And yes Sky Box Office is a pay per view kind of deal.

As for the time slots, Raw is shown live from 2:00 am - 4:00 am and then I believe the repeat showing is Thursday ay 9:00pm. Smackdown is on Friday Nights at 10:00pm and then again Saturday mornings and ECW is on Thursdays at 1:00am, not sure what time that is repeated though.

And not sure about TNA as i'm only a casual viewer of that so can't help you there

 

[Felderino]

Thanks blade saved me having to write all that!

The only thing I'd like to add is that impact is now being shown on Virgin 1 on friday nights which is free and anyone with a digital tv or set top box can get so TNA can reach alot more people over here than the WWE currently can. Whether this means TNA will get a bigger fanbase over here only time will tell .

 

[johnbragg]

Ok. Because TNA fans have been talking about Impact beating or being very close to Raw in the ratings, they must be comparing Virgin 1 on Friday nights to Sky Sports Tuesdays at 2 a.m. I'd be interested in the Smackdown ratings vs the TNA ratings, then, both on Friday nights.

So, Sky Sports would have stuff like Manchester United vs Arsenal /Premier League /Champions League soccer? Euroleague basketball (if Brits care about hoops, I can't think of any British club teams)?

Basically, if you have 20 channels in the UK and care about sports, you probably have Sky Sports, right? You could buy a cheaper package, but no one bothers? Or does the "licence fee" now mean cable, instead of just over-the-air TV? I know that the licence fee used to be for the TV itself, and then you could tune in to 2 BBC channels, ITV and Channel Four.

I don't know how it's developed since then, really, because I learned all I know about British TV from Monty Python sketches, Red Dwarf and a couple of other British comedies.

 

[Too Cool]

I pay about £25 a month (i think) for the skysports package which gets me all the channels which raw/smackdown/ecw are shown on and then certain pay per views are on them as well but the bigger pay per views i have to pay for on sky box office.

TNA is shown on Virgin1 which is a free to air channel on a friday at 9pm and then repeated again on bravo2 at 9pm on a saturday. (Bravo is part of a package you have to pay for.)

 

[GeistInc]

OK then Sky Sports

You need Virgin Media or Sky to get hold of Sky sports, you can't receive it through free to air digital boxes. It costs you extra on top of which ever tv package you take out, and so to watch WWE Raw, Smackdown or the lesser PPV you have to buy Sky Sports.

Sky box office is the pay per view channel which also carries latest DVD releases, and to be fair it's easy to use and understand. But should you loose the signal half way through, well you'll have to wait for the repeat (which you get if you've paid).

Sky also gets knocked out in rain storms, the signal can't reach the receiver. So yes this guy knows what he's doing, mainly because he's getting paid for airing Raw, Smackdown and the PPVs

 

[boywithatoy]

Ok, I'd like to clear some stuff up regarding schedules because it's not quite as clear cut as it seems.

Yes, RAW is shown live at 2am til 4am and then repeated - but it's usually at 9.30-11.30pm on thursdays, followed by ECW 11.30-12.30 (not 1 am as Chaos said). However, WWE is quite low down the pecking order so their programs get moved A LOT. It's not uncommon for the Raw repeat to start at 11pm with ECW following it at 1am. The same thing with smackdown. It's meant to be shown 10pm-midnight on fridays but it seems that lately they been pushing the time back a lot. Sometimes they don't even tell you it's being pushed back. There was a time a month or two ago when every SD for about 3 weeks was pushed back late because of live cricket, rugby, tennis etc (bascially, the most boring sports in the world!). I wouldn't mind but they don't update their program planner. You go to the tv guide menu and it still says "Smackdown 22.00-00.00" even though it quite clearly isn't on. They don't even make an announcement, either a voice-over or ticker tape at the bottom of the screen, nothing. You just have to wait until it comes on - one week it came on at 1.30am!

With TNA showing on free TV (virgin 1) on Fridays 9-11pm you'd think Sky would get their act together but they haven't, especially after they completely messed up last week's smackdwon by putting the last segments IN THE WRONG ORDER! (The last match was Morrison/Escobar - the taker/jericho match happened before it).

I was hoping when it came time to renew their contract, WWE would either go elsewhere or tell sky to get their act together - unfortunately, it looks like niether has happened and once again us wrestlings fans have to put with our programs being classed as second rate with rubbish sports like cricket and tennis taking priority

 

[Too Cool]

It's not ideal that they keep moving the time of smackdown , my sky box gets all confused.At least we dont have to pay for all the pay per views which is always a plus.

 

[London_RKO]

It is annoying how the shows get shunted around, however Sky Sports is by far and away the best platform for WWE. No other channel could hold so many shows in their schedule such as Raw, Smackdown, ECW, Vintage Collection, Bottom Line, Afterburn as well as the free PPVS. Plus Sky is set to add Superstars and another magazine show to the catalouge this month.

We saw when Channel 4 (a channel free to every home in the UK) had some of the WWE rights, it was awful - they even put ad breaks in live PPVS! One in the middle of the Rumble!

Sky is the biggest sporting provider in the country and I'm glad they have renewed the deal with WWE, but they should just try and think more of the fans when they move the times all around.

 

[hillier18]

WWE re-signing with Sky Sports is a great deal for both parties.

Sky has more subscribers than cable or freeview and is the most popular television medium.

WWE is in the top four most watched sports on Sky, behind football, golf and darts, which is good for WWE but must also make Sky quite a bit of money, particularly when PPV's are Sky Box Office.

The PPV's that you have to pay for on Sky include Wrestlemania, Royal Rumble, Survivor Series and Summerslam

 

[Chess]

Sky has more subscribers than cable or freeview and is the most popular television medium.

Really? I didn't realise you could subscribe to freeview, hence the word "free".

Everyone in the UK has freeview, about 20% has Sky Sports, unless you are unemployed and living in a council house where everyone seems to have Sky.

Virgin1 is the saving grace thats brings UK fans a free and exellent wrestling show rather than having to watch the Worlds Worst Entertainment.

 

[Remix]

Nope, not everybody has frewview. because while the channels on freeview are free you need to buy a set top box or a TV which can get freeview. It will have more 'subscribers' than sky though.

and isnt TNA on Virgin only a temporary thing?

But yeah, WWE on sky is good thing for WWE. it's just about the biggest network on TV and that gives WWE a lot of places to be aired and advertised. it gives sky some good time fillers, so its mutually beneficial.

 

[DJ-LyRiX]

and isnt TNA on Virgin only a temporary thing?

Yeah it is because they're stopping it next week or the week after.

I think it makes sense for WWE to be on Sky Sports, I just wish they'd keep it in the same timeslot every week.

On a sidenote, don't you Americans get pissed off that you pay like twice as much for the PPVs? As well as us getting 4/5 of the years PPVs for free, we can buy the others @ £14.95 a time, including HD. That would work out to about $24.69, whereas don't you guys pay something like $50 a pop?

 

[salopstick]

allow me to further clarify the situation for the non british posters

in the uk we have free to air analouge channels about to be switched off

bbc1, bb2, itv, c4 and c5 (BBC funded by television licence)

in the 80s sky started broadcasting on the astra satellite
BSB british satellite broadcasting started up us a rival but was bought out by sky (renamed BSkyB)

we know have free view which is the 5 free channels with a few more channels, you need a set top box or tv with built in free view

cable tv is basically the sky tv package with a few different channels

sky like cable is a subscription based service, it does carry a large number of non sky channels through the sky box

when sky launched they carried nearly all wwf programing, prime time, superstars, challenge, snme and the 4 pay per views. this was at a time when wrestling was in decline in the uk and the main free channels would not touch it

since then sky has been instrumental in broadcasting wwf/wwe. it now broacasts most wwe programming. if it is live in the US it will be live in the uk

alternative ppv's starting with mania are shown on sky box office for £15 a pop the remainder are shown "free" on one of the sky sports channels as part of your subscription

sky has millions of subscribers in the uk and wwe has good viewing figures.

so to answer the original post sky is the best place for wwe as it gets more exposure but also by putting wwe programming on the sports channels subscribers who would not normally take the sports package will subscribe just for the wwe

the monday night wars did not really exist in the uk because nitro was not live and wcw was only shown at shitty times sporadicy on c4 or 5 cant remeber

as stated tna is now on bravo, they normally show the ppv's a couple of days late

there was a wrestling channel on sky but nothing to do with sky this showed lots of japanese and mexican wrestling as well as some roh, noah and lots of shoot interviews. it also showed some british wrestling and old episodes of world of sport wrestling from the 70s

 

[CardiffCam]

Ok, ill try setting it out for you...
Since the digital switchover, there are 3 main ways of watching tv-

Freeview- Has under 100 channels, buy a box and you dont have to pay any fees. You can get Virgin1, which shows TNA impact on here.

Virgin(Cable)- About 1000 channels, pretty much all except Sky Sports. So you can get TNA, but not WWE. You pay monthly subscriptions, for different packages.

Sky(Satellite)- Every channel there is. You pay monthly subscriptions, the most expensive being that of Sky Sports, which is around 20 pounds a month for the 4 main channels, their HD alter egos, and a bunch of club specific channels (MUTV, Liverpool FC TV etc.)

So to watch WWE you have to buy Sky, have your packages, and on top of that pay an extra 20 quid for Sky Sports. Personally, I have Sky but only get Sky Sports when the Lions tour comes around (Rugby thing).

Right now, we're getting rid of anologue tv (comes with tv, nothing but BBC, BBC 2, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5) which means by 2011, everyone in UK will get TNA impact. It managed to beat WWE when it was on bravo, which granted was Raw on at 2 in the morning, but TNA was still competing against Strictly Come Dancing and X Factor (Dancing With The Stars/American Idol). Now its on on Fridays, has very little competition, and has arguably the best wrestling TV deal since ITV's World Of Sport.

So as far as the top 10 tv channel goes, Virgin1 would probably land here-

1.BBC1
2.ITV1
3.BBC2
4.Channel 4
5.E4
6.Sky1
7.BBC 3
8.ITV2
9.Virgin1
10.DAVE

Which is very good positioning. And, unlike WWE, its something anyone could stumble on while flicking through channels.

So WWE, being established, have the best deal they can get as an established entity. Whereas TNA have the best possible deal trying to get noticed. Ive noticed that while the most referenced wrestling person in pop culture was Carlito (for people with afros) its now actually Samoa Joe (For people who look samoan), which means theyre definetely getting exposure.

Sorry for the essay, just to get everything cleared up.

 

[Tastycles]

Jesus, people have been mostly talking out of their arse in this thread, so I'll correct everyone's subjective views.

Sky Sports 3 has an audience share of 0.2%, which is the same as Bravo, TNA's principle channel. However, Bravo also shows TNA on Bravo 2, which has an audience share of 0.1% and Virgin 1, which has recently, but not continuously, shown some episodes of Impact has a 0.7% share.

TNA therefore has a similar audience range to Smackdown, and unlike what everyone has said here, they are capable of drawing better numbers than the WWE some weeks. This is because Impact is Bravo's second biggest draw, whereas Sky Sports push WWE around the schedule a lot. The main airing of Raw is at 9.30pm on a Thursday, but this can regularly be pushed back 2 hours.

The viewing figures are astoundingly similar, but this won't be for long. Sky enjoyed its highest volume of WWE viewers when it used to air Smackdown on Sky 1 (audience share = 1.0%). The WWE asked them not to, for reasons I am unaware of, but now Superstars is going to be shown there, at a reasonable hour, the WWE's popularity will rocket above that of TNA's once again.

 

[theviolentmessiah]

I think it could be a mistake to have all their shows on an "extra channel", especially with their aiming at the younger audience. If parents are buying the channels why would they spend the extra cash to pick up Sky Sports? I definitely see a lot more TNA and know most of my friends too as WWE simply isnt worth the price of Sky Sports alone. TNA comes free with almost every package! Maybe WWE should try and get one weekly show on Sky1, with the rest on Sky Sports.

 

[boywithatoy]

Virgin(Cable)- About 1000 channels, pretty much all except Sky Sports. So you can get TNA, but not WWE. You pay monthly subscriptions, for different packages.

.....

So to watch WWE you have to buy Sky, have your packages, and on top of that pay an extra 20 quid for Sky Sports.

This isn't strictly true. You can have virgin (cable) AND watch WWE - you just take out the sky sports package, so you don't have to sky (ie: a satelite dish) to get sky programs. I should know, we've got Virgin with the sky sports package. However, with Sky moving wwe programs around the timeslots, when it comes time to renew our package we don't think we're going to bother again with sky sports - it's easier, quicker and cheaper to just download the programs.

 

[MY NUTZ ON YOUR ACE]

Why did Sky drop Raw from it's old 9pm Monday night slot? If I was negotating for WWE I would want that old slot that proved so successful in the past back before I renewed. The WWE has more leverage than they think with skysports - most people go out to watch football to a bar rather than pay the subscription to watch it at home and be less social so its the niche sports like cricket, golf, and WWE that attract most of Sky Sports customers. WWE could easily put their show on a freeview channel and get much higher ratings if they really wanted but I doubt they want to give their PPV's away for free.

but now Superstars is going to be shown there, at a reasonable hour, the WWE's popularity will rocket above that of TNA's once again.

I'm not a big fan of TNA but this is rubish who wants to watch a crappy mid-carder show with no big draws, and no storylines. Superstars is just a revamped version of Heat and we all saw what a huge draw that was

 

[MY NUTZ ON YOUR ACE]

Raw is shown LIVE at 2am, it can't be shown before it's happend.

Ahh mistake here I meant Tuesday obviously so why did they change it? I usually find it on youtube or some other site the next day rather than subscribe to sky sports purely for wrestling. It isn't WWE's fault it's just Sky doesn't offer much in the way of other sports I'm interested in as I can watch football at a bar or pub. If they diversified their progamming to include a wider range of sports and had better programming and events through the day time (like ESPN in america) I might consider it.

I think the biggest problem with WWE giving sky exclusive rights is that how many people are actualy willing to pay the extra £15 or so for sky sports just to watch WWE. Now I am a fan but I'm not THAT big a fan to pay the extra, and neither are most people I think. WWE should give Sky PPV and live (or first) rights but sell a delayed broadcast of their weekly shows to another channel (on freeview). This would allow them to build a larger fanbase with more price conscious customers.

 

[Milky_Joe]

To put it simply, WWE is shown on the UK equivalent of ESPN in America. If you want to watch sport on a dedicated sports channel in the UK, you go with Sky Sports, because the coverage every other channel has is minimal in comparison. All the major sports are shown on Sky Sports. Football (both American and Soccer), Golf, Boxing, Cricket, Rugby, Tennis and many more all have major coverage, in fact Sky Sports virtually has a monopoly in a lot of these sports.

Being on Sky Sports means it's also a part of the growing HD market, as Sky are the major HD channel provider in the UK.

TNA is currently shown on Virgin 1 which is a decent sized entertainment channel, although the biggest show they've ever had would probably be The Sarah Connor Chronicles. The rest of the time the channel has Deep Space Nine re-runs or cheap reality shows (for example, tonight at 9pm we have "Most Shocking Party Pandemonium" whatever that is). It's normally shown on Bravo, which is a very minor entertainment channel with programming even more basic than Virgin 1 (tonight we have re-runs of The A-Team and some sea rescue programme).

Basically, WWE is on the biggest UK sports channel network, whereas TNA is usually on a small entertainment channel. If TNA were to get similar exposure to WWE it would need to be on Sky1, which is the biggest satellite entertainment channel. Incidentally, WWE used to be shown on Sky1 as part of their deal, but it seems to be exclusively on Sky Sports now.