WWE Network Reaches Milestone

[Jack-Hammer]

A press release is making the rounds now confirming today that WWE Network has surpassed 1 million subscribers just 11 months after launch, making it the fastest-growing digital subscription service. These results represent a 37 percent increase (24 percent domestically) in subscribers since last reported at the end of third quarter 2014, driven primarily by a successful free November promotion, the launch of the service in the UK and significant additions for the Royal Rumble pay-per-view event. Viewer data continues to indicate that, on average, close to 90 percent of subscribers access WWE Network at least once per week, 99 percent access WWE Network at least once per month and 86 percent of subscribers are satisfied with WWE Network. It's also made the stockholders pretty happy as WWE's stock is up roughly 13.6% as of 2:14 pm EST.

While we've been fuming the past few days over the happenings at the Royal Rumble, this is good news for the WWE. With all the available content currently on the network from the WWE tape library, shows like NXT and getting every ppv, $10 a month really is a great deal.

 

[CyberPunk]

Good news for WWE. I am very sure that the International availability of the Network must have helped the numbers. I am also wondering that whether this takes into account subscriptions like mine because WWE is still not officially available here, which makes it slightly more expensive for people like me because of the workaround to get it working here. I also wonder if this is the latest number i.e. post Rumble. It'd be interesting to know how the subscriptions get affected as we move towards the Mania season. All in all, good for E.

 

[chuckmdubya]

This is good news. Since subscribing I have been addicted. So much cool stuff, old stuff, specials, and the PPV's on there. I hope it continues to grow and they continue to add content. I hope soon they will add some of the older shows like the old WWF superstars and Superstars of Wrestling. I'd love to see the show of Macho Getting bit by Jake the Snake's cobra, and some of the old Brother Love shows.

 

[FightOwensFight]

Yep, I echo the already expressed sentiments. I always thought the doom and gloom of the numbers being reported was a bit of a stretch, considering their largest fan-base outside North America didn't have access yet. You knew once the UK go access the number would spike, and look at that, they did.

I probably go on a couple times a week, especially if the wife is out of the house for one reason or another. Enjoyed watching most of the Monday Night Wars (though it did get pretty repetitive towards the end). Really enjoy the Countdown shows as it is fun to get the perspective of the current roster on the past. Just all in all a great product...and all for $9.99

 

[d_henderson1810]

So, is this before all these angry people cancelled the Network, in light of Royal Rumble?

Or is it after, meaning that #CancelTheNetwork has had little effect?

If it is the latter, then these people who bitch and moan and say that the WWE will go under because they won't subscribe, all I say is, the WWE doesn't need your subscription, because they have a million others who love the Network.

To those tweeting #CancelTheNetwork, how does it feel to have no power for change?

BTW, congrats to WWE. I have the Network and love it. My only problem is finding the time to watch it all. Talk about spoiled for choice.

 

[No Count Pup]

Today WWE can reap the rewards of their efforts. Sure Vince McMahon and the production staff deserve credit, but this is a day to celebrate today's WWE talent roster. Hulk Hogan and the Rowdy One took the WrestleMania idea and turned it into a mega event. Stone Cold and The Rock upped the volume and brought WWE unprecedented TV ratings success en route to conquering WCW. And today John Cena and Brock Lesnar have elevated the WWE Network to a level many outsiders figured WWE would never reach.

I know it sounds like I am primarily crediting the main eventers for every major WWE advance. That is not my intent; every wrestler contributes. But as a matter of fairness, when things go poorly it is customary to blame leaders. On this occasion when WWE has reached a milestone, it is appropriate to credit those leaders who are subject to mass scrutiny on a daily basis.

 

[closet_fan]

So, is this before all these angry people cancelled the Network, in light of Royal Rumble?

Or is it after, meaning that #CancelTheNetwork has had little effect?

If it is the latter, then these people who bitch and moan and say that the WWE will go under because they won't subscribe, all I say is, the WWE doesn't need your subscription, because they have a million others who love the Network.

To those tweeting #CancelTheNetwork, how does it feel to have no power for change?

BTW, congrats to WWE. I have the Network and love it. My only problem is finding the time to watch it all. Talk about spoiled for choice.

It sounds like the hashtag was just that, a simple hashtag. I am sure a few people cancelled, but it seems many say they did, but didn't.

I'm not and I won't. $9.99 is affordable to some, while others are on a fixed budget. I'm the former. And besides the PPVs, there is so much content, it will take you a long time to get through it all.

Just being able to see WM on my big screen is worth $9.99 alone.

The Network isn't all just about the PPVs. Not for me anyways.

 

[LDubz]

I love the Network personally. The #CancelWWENetwork just because of the Rumble I thought was a bit of an affront to an outstanding title match, and that alone made the PPV worth it in my opinion

 

[George Steele's Barber]

Remember that 1 million was a break even point and assumed that 1 million were paying for the network year round. They have now changed the subscription model to allow monthly subscriptions. The WWE did a great job selling The Rumble on the back of throwing Rollins in to the main event mix, bringing back Bryan, and lack of certainty over the Rumble winner. I expect these numbers to continue through Mania and even increase but what happens after that? How many people are going to stick around for the lesser PPVs? The company can tout the numbers and what a great quarter they may have but where are they going to be at the end of the fiscal year?

And as far as #cancelthenetwork goes or whatever that was, I'm sure some of those people were full of shit and others are at least waiting for their month to finish, but then again some of those people will also be back for Mania.

 

[XXJJ]

I think the WWE network is great. I'd expect the subscriptions to increase going into WM.

I bet most of the people retweeting #CancelWWENetwork on twitter were not even subscribers.

 

[BillAlfonsos_Whistle]

The WWE network is unreal if you are an actual Wrestling fan.
If you are just someone who likes to tune into RAW from time to time and watch Rumble and Mania it might not be as good, although certainly is worth the price just for those few PPVs alone.

It would be worth it to me even if they didn't put one second of new content on there. 120 bucks per year is well worth owning every moment in (legitimate) Pro Wrestling PPV history

 

[Radical]

No one person should really take credit for the Network hitting 1 Million subscribers because a lot of factors probably led to it.

They had the free preview of November including Survivor Series, they had the Network finally being available in Canada and the UK, among other countries and you had a very impressive Royal Rumble including a coincidental snowstorm that forced WWE to replay, for free, the WWE title match and Royal Rumble match on Monday Raw.

All these factors probably contributed to a spike in subscriptions. But it is interesting to me that it happened a day or two after the Royal Rumble. After all the IWC crazed viewers got all huffy about Roman Reigns winning the Rumble and Daniel Bryan getting eliminated early and Kane and Big Show staying in the Rumble until near the end.

All that did NOT massively turn paying fans away from the WWE. In fact, for whatever reason, it turned them onto it.

It's a good lesson for why Vince may be 'out of touch' with what some vocal wrestling fans on the Internet may believe but he is not completely out of touch with what can make money and gain more interest in his product.

 

[PeterSellersSTL]

^?????? Nevermind.

I'd actually would like to give credit to Reigns and Lesnar, because, it's been pointed out that the network passed the million subscriber mark shortly after monday and after the CancelWWENetwork backfired. I believe in the old adage that all press is good press.

When a line is drawn in the sand people are going to take upsides, I think that actually put a lot of people onto what the fuss was about and they saw the potential mania match up of two monsters.

I had a pretty great thread before it was deleted of twitter responses from people I personally thought to be casual fans and were really excited about Reigns vs Lesnar. I think they ARE going to pull in those fans from a bygone era.

I know I've personally gifted two network subscriptions to old friends who were fans of the old product. I said "hey this is on me, these two guys are beasts you got the upstart and the legitimately best WWE Champion of all time - this is gonna be fantastic".

It's just MY WAY of supporting the business, and supporting the WWE for rewarding me with a match I personally wanted to see. Now, I don't know how many people might have done something similar but it's fair to say there's a buzz around what happened at the Rumble. I think people are excited to see a believable match-up between two heavyweights.

That's my belief in what pushed the network past 1 million subscribers so soon after. I couldn't be happier for Vince and the WWE. You won't find a more dogged critic of the WWE than me but I like to think they're headed in the right direction.

Wrestlemania is where you take your chance to cement a wrestlers push and certify a star who can carry the company the other 11 months of the year. I hope this year it pays off. And I actually hope Lesnar stays. Win or Lose - I think Roman is going to get made at Wrestlemania 31.

 

[Pedigree1]

I absolutely love the Network! I have been a subscriber since Day 1 and will continue to be. Its a awesome value for your dollar.. To run through the PPVS it will take you 2-3 years and thats averaging 1-2 a day to run through them all. Thats not a bad deal. I love all the old school content especially the Saturday Night Main Event!

PrimeTimeWrestling for those old enough to remember Gorilla Moonsoon and Bobby Hennan were gold on the Mic together! They gave life no matter who wrestled or what was going on

 

[#1druid]

^?????? Nevermind.

I'd actually would like to give credit to Reigns and Lesnar, because, it's been pointed out that the network passed the million subscriber mark shortly after monday and after the CancelWWENetwork backfired. I believe in the old adage that all press is good press.

When a line is drawn in the sand people are going to take upsides, I think that actually put a lot of people onto what the fuss was about and they saw the potential mania match up of two monsters.

I had a pretty great thread before it was deleted of twitter responses from people I personally thought to be casual fans and were really excited about Reigns vs Lesnar. I think they ARE going to pull in those fans from a bygone era.

I know I've personally gifted two network subscriptions to old friends who were fans of the old product. I said "hey this is on me, these two guys are beasts you got the upstart and the legitimately best WWE Champion of all time - this is gonna be fantastic".

It's just MY WAY of supporting the business, and supporting the WWE for rewarding me with a match I personally wanted to see. Now, I don't know how many people might have done something similar but it's fair to say there's a buzz around what happened at the Rumble. I think people are excited to see a believable match-up between two heavyweights.

That's my belief in what pushed the network past 1 million subscribers so soon after. I couldn't be happier for Vince and the WWE. You won't find a more dogged critic of the WWE than me but I like to think they're headed in the right direction.

Wrestlemania is where you take your chance to cement a wrestlers push and certify a star who can carry the company the other 11 months of the year. I hope this year it pays off. And I actually hope Lesnar stays. Win or Lose - I think Roman is going to get made at Wrestlemania 31.

Turns out they fudged the numbers by including even those who cancelled in the numbers. They probably just said it to counter negative publicity.

 

[Navi]

Turns out they fudged the numbers by including even those who cancelled in the numbers. They probably just said it to counter negative publicity.

Yes I read that as well. They've included the number of people that have cancelled, which totals over 250,000. So they might have hit the million mark, but there are not a million subscriptions currently active. The WWE will be releasing their 4th quarter number's next week. After the disaster at the Rumble it will be interesting to see. Stock prices took at hit, not a huge one, but they are down.

 

[Papa Pillman]

I love that all of the apologists immediately jumped on the train of "the trending hashtag was bullshit" and "look how good the network is doing" and "Monday's Raw got lots of people to sign up", yada, etc.

And then the reality hits that:
The one million Network subscribers that the WWE reported is a cumulative total since the Network launched, and doesn't at all represent currently active subscribers. The third quarter report showed WWE had 723,174 Network subscribers. And new gross additions total 285,000 while cancellations and non-renewals total 254,000 subscribers. Leaving a number of active subscribers that in reality only barely tops the three quarters of a million mark, over 24% lower than the WWE spin doctors wanted to make people believe.

The WWE's propaganda machine is scrambling to try and cover for what has been a disastrous start to WrestleMania season, paired with an upcoming Final quarter report that is gonna see the WWE having to show an earnings loss in 2014 at the staggeringly damaging tune of nearly fifty cents per share!

 

[THTRobtaylor]

I could have told you this immediately it was announced... it was a way to bury bad news, and then they also "spun" the ratings increase for the non existant RAW... of course it was up cost they put the match you had to pay for the previous night on and people were curious what the hate was about...

It's dangerous to try and work Wall Street, they've come close a couple of times and while they might be technically valid in this, watch that share price tumble again today... they're already "appeasing" Bryan with a move to Ziggler at Mania, don't get comfy Roman...

 

[Wald]

Good god are people so easily fooled? This is why democracy has been so easily subverted in the past few decades. I'll start by saying I am a subscriber and I never used #CancelWWENetwork because I don't intend to not renew it until either after Wrestlemania or after Summerslam, depending on storylines.

But how can you people be so easily led? Honestly could you just think about things for a few minutes instead of just bleating away and trying to one up each other?

Look at the timing of this announcement, bit coincidental no? I mean just as #CancelWWENetwork becomes a thing they announce that they've broken a million subscribers and you don't think that's suspect? When they say a million does that mean active subscribers? Or are there 600,000 active subscribers with 400,000 lapsed? Does having a million worldwide subscribers in January 2015 count as a win when you said you'd have a million subscribers in America alone by December 2014?

I honestly get depressed thinking about how people can be so wilfully ignorant sometimes. I worked in communications for a multinational entertainment company for a while too and trust me when I say that timing of releases is always a thing. There's always just as much thought gone in to when to release an announcement as to what's in the announcement. I don't for a second not think that WWE scrambled for a good news story on Monday morning to try to dampen the #CancelWWENetwork story and divide fans and it looks like they were successful. Do people not realise that the fans actual do hold a great deal of power now that the Network is a core component of the WWE business model? That us being able to boycott it and promote that on social media is actually a very strong hand to have in determining the direction of creative?

Carry on with your 'oh lolz they got the million so you suck lol' nonsense though.

EDIT: My bad, I didn't read the news that all of the above has been found to be true already. Point obviously still stands, think more and don't believe whatever companies what you believe

 

[George Steele's Barber]

For fuck sakes Vince. I considered that 1 million meant aggregate since inception instead of current but I never thought they would be stupid enough to share this information in this way as a public company.

Forget all the bad booking and stupid Raw segments this is Vince's true "he has lost it" moment. Spreading misleading news that in turn bumps your stock price is foolish. It sounds borderline criminal.

Then again it makes sense, most of that bump from the last announcement until now would have had to come from the UK addition and as much as the UK has die hard fans, it doesn't seem like there are that many of them.

The WWE Network continues to be a failure. I hate to think how bad their numbers are going to look after Mania.

 

[Navi]

For fuck sakes Vince. I considered that 1 million meant aggregate since inception instead of current but I never thought they would be stupid enough to share this information in this way as a public company.

Forget all the bad booking and stupid Raw segments this is Vince's true "he has lost it" moment. Spreading misleading news that in turn bumps your stock price is foolish. It sounds borderline criminal.

Then again it makes sense, most of that bump from the last announcement until now would have had to come from the UK addition and as much as the UK has die hard fans, it doesn't seem like there are that many of them.

The WWE Network continues to be a failure. I hate to think how bad their numbers are going to look after Mania.

They are trying to make the Rumble look like it was a success when it really wasn't. Most of the hard core UK fans I know, got the network when it first came out through alternative means.

I've sure since it was released more jumped on the bandwagon, but it's the numbers at home I would be more worried about. They were hoping to hit the million mark just from the US, and it didn't happen. I would like to see the numbers by country of those that have cancelled. I'm thinking it's not the overseas fans, it's home grown ones.

 

[Mustang Sally]

.... but it's the numbers at home I would be more worried about. They were hoping to hit the million mark just from the US, and it didn't happen.

Yes, that was the original goal, wasn't it? The point is that while companies claim they use extensive market research to back up (or justify) whatever it was they wanted to accomplish in the first place, the research is a nebulous tool, at best. So many "sample" surveys are set up to reach the conclusion the company wants.....and as we're reading in this topic, the manner in which WWE interprets the data might be misleading.

As far as the WWE network, I'd love to know what Vince McMahon really expected in terms of subscribers. Did he have any idea at all? The "one million" figure is a nice, neat number, isn't it? Did McMahon actually laugh when he named that number, figuring the subscriber count would be so much higher than that? It was announced that the million is what was needed to break even, yes..... but did they have any clue as to what they'd realistically get?

Even after the rest of the world was let in on this offer, it could be Vince & company are crushingly disappointed in the results.....it's not as if they're ever going to admit that, are they?

Next thing we know, they'll be adding tapes of the World Bodybuilding Federation and World Football League to the network offerings.

Still, I believe having the network was right decision. I think it's terrific.

 

[three count bout]

The WWE network will be free in February. I'd consider that smart damage control.

 

[CyberPunk]

I almost knew that was happening. They've offered WWE Network free for month of Feb. Damage control? I mean what does it say when WWE has had to offer Network free twice in 4 months? I am almost tempted to not cancel my WWE subscription at the end of my current month. Smart move may be?

 

[enviousdominous]

Pro-wrestling isn't just a violent screaming opera, in our hearts it is living history that we fussy fans can possibly manipulate. The information age isn't just a wondrous time where data is easily contained and shared among the populace, it's a time for humanity to go balls out with fucking stupid expressions of thought which can influence equally impulsive dip-shits on a global scale.

Hey all, have you tried Twitter lately? I did, for a month. While Twitter may be a neat way of organizing righteous gatherings covertly so as to right the wrongs of a sadistic higher power, it's more often used as a dumping ground for the most fucking stupid ideas ever thought of, ideas which exponentially top each other in terms of how many generations the human race would have to devolve to relate to them. I don't use Twitter anymore.

I'm not surprised that people patronized a hashtag without actually going through with what one might expect of someone who uses that hashtag, people don't usually bother to think their thoughts through before they post them on the internet for all to see.

The WWE Network is at one million subscribers, it would probably still be around for the next ten years if they plummeted down to five hundred thousand. If John Cena is proof of anything, it's that the WWE can succeed by giving angst ridden fans the exact opposite of what they demand.