Lets help Vince improve those pesky buyrates!

Rjd2

The E released figures from the third quarter earlier and while money is been made, the PPV issue is a serious worry.
The usual reasons for PPV figures been down will be mentoined, e.g Economy, to many, UFC PPV'S taking away business no Chris Masters on the card, etc.

What steps does Vince need to carry out to stop the bleeding? Does he need to cut down? or is the build up to the PPV'S not good enough?

World Wrestling Entertainment today announced financial results for its third quarter ended September 30, 2009. To read the full report, visit http://investor.shareholder.com/wwe/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=422164.
Some highlights from the report:

The company's Revenue totaled $111.3 million as compared to $108.8 million in the prior year quarter with their net income at $8.9 million (up from $5.3 million). They listed the company's operating income as $14.5 million, compared to $7.9 million in the prior year's same quarter.

In the report, WWE announced that Summerslam had drawn 369,000 PPV buys, down from 477,000 in 2008. Breaking Point, which replaced Unforgiven, reported 169,000 buys. Night of Champions reported 267,000 buys. WWE noted that this quarter made $14.5 million in PPV revenue, down 10% from this time last year. Those are bad numbers from any point of view. 10% down is scary.

WWE noted their television rights fees were $28.3 million, up from $24.4 million thanks to the rights fees from WWE Superstars on WGN America and new deals for existing contracts.

Home Video revenue was up to $11.2 million from $11 million last year. WWE Classics on Demand dipped to $1.2 million down from $1.4 million last year, partially because they've still been unable to get on Time-Warner and several other cable outlets.

WWE announced their Studios department made $7.5 million this quarter from the DVD sales of their films. It was also noted in the report that the company has yet to recoup its investment in John Cena's theatrical film "12 Rounds" but that is partially due to the DVD release not being included in this quarter.

WWE.com

http://www.pwinsider.com/article/42752/wwe-announces-third-quarter-results-summerslam-ppv-buys-ouch.html?p=1

EdK

I've got two words for him



























Less PPVs

Penn

Agreed. Less PPVs means a better build-up to the PPVs, which means more interest in the PPVs, which means better buy-rates for the PPVs. Its simple. No more than 1 a month. Minimum of 4 weeks between PPVs. Minimum 5 weeks before big PPVS like Wrestlemania and Summerslam. Stop having the same main events over and over again too.

The gimmick PPVs like Hell in a Cell and TLC need to go too. These sort of matches are supposed to end fueds, but if you have the same people in the main event just going from gimmick to gimmick, how is anything supposed to get truly settled?

DM_7

Incentivise them.

Let me buy a season ticket. Lets say 100 quid all PPVs.

Or How about instead of charging 20-30 quid for one PPV you get extra ones included. Lets say you buy Survivor series, you get the next two PPV's free.

One PPV is way to dear to be bothered buying them. I'd rather buy the DVD or Just wait for the DVD of my Favourite Superstar. I would of loved to Follow CM punk since he cashed in MITB but the PPV price is too dear, i will just wait for his DVD down the line.

Also stop putting matches featuring your main event guys against each other on free tv. Why did we see Hardy v Punk on Smackdown so often when there battles should only be on PPV.

flahavaj

Breaking Point buyrate is horrendous.

He should push the croozerweights.:pac:

waltersobchak

the fact that theres 4 ppv in september and october is just ridiculous, overkill to the extreme, plus raw, smackdown, ecw and superstars.. why waste your money when you get so much free to air wrestling, on such a regular basis.. logically if they starting going back to the 4 prestigious ppvs a year. Royal Rumble, Wrestlemania, Summerslam and Survivor series each could possibly do 1 million buys each(hypothetically) allowing for months of build to each one, compared to the 14 ppvs at the moment doing between 100-300 thousand buys roughly at the moment(not including wrestlemania) would that not make more financial sense..

Furious-Red

Looks like Judgement Day is gone , and raising the prices is a great idea for PPV's Vince ha

The following memo was sent out by a worker in the cable industry:

As part of our ongoing efforts to maximize the WWE pay-per-view business, we have made several changes to our branding strategy in 2009. A key priority was to rename and retheme several of our events to better describe those pay-per-views and to build interest for our fans through new “hooks” and stronger themes.

In contemplating the future of the pay-per-view business, we would like to make you aware of two important changes we are making to our pay-per-view strategy in 2010.

1. WWE will increase the suggested retail price of its pay-per-view events (excluding WrestleMania), by $5.00, to $44.95. This change in the SRP shall become effective commencing with Royal Rumble, which will be held on January 31, 2010. This will be the first price increase for non-WrestleMania events since 2006. Please note that the SRP for WrestleMania will remain $54.95.

2. WWE is eliminating one of our June pay-per-view events (actually Judgment Day, although the July PPV is still unknown) therefore reducing the number of pay-per-view events in 2010 to 13 events. Please find the preliminary 2010 WWE pay-per-view event schedule below and attached.

The strategy of reducing our pay-per-view calendar to one event per month (except for October) achieves both creative and business objectives for WWE. It allows us to better develop compelling storylines and arcs in order to motivate our fans to purchase more pay-per-views. This change also allows for increased marketing windows for each event, during which we can more effectively communicate our sales message.