Oh boy. Here's the release of info for their earnings.
Here are some stats:
Revenue was notably up from Q2 2012. Good to hear.
Operating income was notably down, due to investments in staffing and talent. The "potential" WWE Network and WWE Performance Center weren't/aren't cheap (that's a lot of people employed), but I think at least the Performance Center can be justified.
Revenue was way up in North America, but down in Latin America, and slightly down in Europe/Middle East/Africa, and Asia/Pacific. That's something of a mixed bag. It can't be as simple as "no Rey Mysterio", can it? They've got to get Del Rio, Sin Cara, etc. well-established. It took a long time to make Mysterio a big star, so they shouldn't lose hope.
Live and Televised Entertainment, Digital Media, and WWE Studios were all up. Nice! Shockingly, this doesn't include anything from "The Call" with Halle Berry. "Dead Man Down" had Colin Farrell and Terrence Howard, though, so that probably helped. It's almost always a case of "lolWWEStudios", with people wondering why they keep it around, but it's doing well now.
WrestleMania XXIX was pretty successful, due to the increased price of the show and tickets, more merch, etc.. Buys were down, but that's to be expected with the price increase.
AXXESS events were also successful.
There were fewer international events, which could have been a factor in the downgrade of business internationally. Ticket prices were higher and attendance was up.
Brazil is an important future market for them.
Attendance at live events in North America was up! Glad to hear it.
One fewer PPV meant less revenue from those, but HD prices helped them make more money.
Buyrates were also down for Extreme Rules and Payback (compared to No Way Out) as well. That's a problem. I think the shows have been pretty good lately for what that's worth. They're starting to use more new stars. It will take time for those new stars to become as successful.
3 hours of Raw, Main Event, and Saturday Morning Slam means more money for WWE.
More ads on WWE's websites = more money. Awesome.
And here's news from the WWE conference call:
Vince sounds like he's confident that business will do well in the future with all of those business ventures. I think he's got reason to be.
The WWE app is a hit. Cool.
More money from TV deals? That would be nice.
More stuff from the conference call:
Higher TV audience and more social media followers. Nice.
The WWE Network (it's got to be coming one day, right?) will be a very big deal one way or another.
Q&A from the Conference Call.
I like that they've gotten non-WWE fans into the movies. Will those fans then turn into WWE fans? I'm not really sure. Maybe so?
Oh, snap! WWE getting as much money as other sports shows that don't draw as well? That'll be the day.
I wonder if they'll think twice about going to New York after the costs there. It was interesting that they avoided the Rock question.
Yeah, that's it. More wrestling tomorrow.
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