Read on for information and analysis on the Q3 2012 numbers for WWE.
Here are the results. Some thoughts:
Big picture, business is notably down from the same time last year. Some of this can be rightly attributed to not having WWE All-Stars around this year. That shouldn't be a yearly release.
While they did get some revenue from Main Event and Saturday Morning Slam, it's going to remain to be seen how those programs stand in the years to come. Velocity, Heat, ECW, NXT, and Superstars all started out impressively, then fizzled. None of them now air in the U.S..
Higher attendance and PPV buys is great! Thank Brock Lesnar and hopefully C.M. Punk.
The WWE Network is going to be really important.
I don't know exactly what happened in the EMEA region other than less live events there (which run the talent ragged at any rate). It should be seen as concerning if some of their TV shows got cancelled there.
The WWE Magazine is experiencing what all print media are experiencing. They might should try putting it online.
WWE Studios bombed again. I think they should drop it entirely if the next quarter is also unimpressive.
And here are highlights from the conference call.
Finally some progress on the WWE Network (kind of). The timetable has gone from April 2012 to November 2012 to TBD/TBA. I'm concerned, like a lot of others, that this isn't going like WWE planned.
I think they're being overly optimistic about getting those lapsed fans back. If ratings were higher and WWE 24/7 was doing amazingly well, I could understand the feeling, but the numbers aren't bearing that out. If there are 12 million hardcore fans, why are fewer than 4 million people watching Raw each week?
More wrestling coming up!
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