Quote:
Originally Posted by BigCrippyZ
Not if you want a true objective picture and valuation. I do audits and valuations on music, film and television IP all the time in order to negotiate rights deals and/or sales contracts. They have the numbers and are excluding them for a reason but it's not because "they are different animals."
Vince and his family might think or want to believe that "they are different animals" so it doesn't matter, but I can guarantee you that when USA or any other network does an audit to determine a valuation for the next TV rights deal with WWE, it will absolutely include everything missing in that data. |
You must not be paying attention to these negotiations.
If your statement is Network TV rights fees are generally higher than cable, you would be correct, because they draw a larger audience. Most people know that.
When it comes to ratings, you don't see it listed as every TV show ranked against one another. Ratings are ranked with cable separated from Network. Because it's apples and oranges.
WWE could negotiate with the major networks, but the networks would look at WWEs numbers and likely take a pass. WWE we assume will be negotiating with USA and other cable outlets. USA is not worried about their standing vs say ABC, but they are worried about their standing vs ESPN. The negotiations will centre around what WWE will do for USAs overall standing vs other cable networks. If for example, WWEs five hours of content pulls USAs weekly average over the top 25 average, then that puts WWE in a good position. Likewise a cable network below the average will look at WWEs numbers and think this might be a way to get them above the industry average. Of course it comes down to a numbers game of how much are those additional eyeballs worth. In the Attitude Era, not much, because the WWE was seen in a more negative light. Now with the clean up of the product, you have advertisers lining up to be involved with WWE, which will raise their value even more as more can be charged for ad time.
I'm happy to continue to school you on how the industry works if you'd like to PM me.