WWE released their Q1 2019 financial results:
- Whoa. That's the first time revenue has dropped in a pretty good while.
- Wowww. They've got some real expenses going on.
- The WWE Network is hardly thriving like they had hoped. There's only so much more they can do to make that appeal to people.
- Well, at least their digital business is doing well.
- Vince is pinning this on "Superstar absences." With the amount of talent they have under contract, that shouldn't be much of a problem.
- WWE is a TV business first and foremost. Live events and merch sales are hurting.
- They're really seeing declines in viewership from last year. Frankly it's time to really shift what they're doing.
- Whoooooaaaa they need to make some major changes to their live events.
- Damn. WWE Network is shrinking.
- Wild to see live events taking such a hit.
WWE did a big conference call after their release, covered here:
- WWE hasn't been built on specific talent in years, with a few key exceptions. I definitely don't think they can exclusively blame not having certain talent for the declines.
- It's one thing to hire new creative voices and live event people. It's another to make concrete changes.
- OK but seriously what are they actually going to do to make changes other than "hire new people"? The people at the top are still the same and they're not doing anything drastic.
- WWE not addressing contract issues is telling.
- WWE not addressing the Saudi show is VERY telling.
- I don't think key talent missing from Raw and SDL can fully explain the Network drop.
- But has NXT UK led to more subscriptions? That should be the key goal of the brand if it's not just about building people for Raw and SDL (which are the key financial drivers of the company)
- I'm very curious to see how "Fox Sports" integrates WWE.
- There are definitely fans tired of certain older talents.
- Wow. Way to throw Kofi under a bus as only being champion due to talent absences.
- They're not even considering it being Creative related?
- We'll see how things go for the rest of 2019 as far as talent being built.
- Imagine a third hour of SDL each week given the current audience declines for the company. That would definitely bring in a lot of money, but. Wow. I don't know if it's sustainable.
WWE stock closed down more than 13% following the financial release and conference call. If that's not a red flag to make big changes, I don't know what is.
More wrestling coming up.
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