View Full Version : BSKYB Extend WWE contract for 5 years in the UK. NOT GOOD NEWS :(
Dave Youell
10-05-2004, 04:52 AM
WTF!
We are going to have to pay for 8 PPV's per year now! It's not enough that we already pay for 4 and have to watch them at 1am, but now we have to pay for twice as many!
I'll think i'll be saving the PPV's to jsut the big 4 for the one's i'm going to pay to see
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World Wresting Entertainment® And BSKYB Sign Unprecedented Five-Year Television Deal
New Agreement Provides Extensive WWE® Programming in the UK
STAMFORD, Conn., and LONDON, UK, October 4, 2004 – World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:WWE) has expanded its 18-year relationship with British Sky Broadcasting (LSE:BSY.L) in the UK, signing a new five-year distribution agreement for WWE's weekly programming, and pay-per-view specials, which takes effect in January 2005.
Under the new agreement, BSKYB - which provides WWE programming to more than 10 million households in the UK and Republic of Ireland - will carry all nine first run hours of WWE's seven weekly programs. WWE RAW®, WWE SmackDown!™, WWE Heat™, WWE Velocity™, WWE Bottom Line™, and WWE After Burn™ on Sky Sports Channel, and WWE Experience™ on Sky One. Six monthly Specials will also be shown on Sky Sports.
BSKYB will show eight events annually on Sky Box Office, including perennial favorites WrestleMania®, Royal Rumble®, Summerslam® and Survivor Series®.
Shane McMahon, Executive Vice President, WWE Global Media, hailed the new agreement as the start of an expanded presence in the UK. "We value the UK market, and see it as a natural stepping off point for furthering expansion of the WWE brand around the world," said McMahon. "We have had a long and beneficial partnership with BSKYB. WWE is excited about our expanding relationship and the business opportunities it offers."
Andrew Whitaker, Senior Vice President & Managing Director, WWE International Television Distribution, added, "The new agreement takes WWE and BSKYB into a third decade of business together. There is no greater testimony to the mutually beneficial nature of this special relationship. We look forward to further expanding our programming and presence in the UK working with BSKYB."
Vic Wakeling, Managing Director of Sport at BSKYB, said: "WWE Wrestling has been with us since our network began and a generation of fans have enjoyed their events and weekly shows on Sky. Now we can offer our viewers WWE for the next five years - and we'll have more shows for them, too."
World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE: WWE) is an integrated media and entertainment company headquartered in Stamford, Conn., with offices in New York City, Los Angeles, Toronto and London. Additional information on the company can be found at wwe.com and corporate.wwe.com.
Lara Emily
10-05-2004, 05:03 AM
Ohh poor baby you have to pay for Pay Per Views. :roll:
Lara Emily
10-05-2004, 05:09 AM
Sorry if that seemed condescening or whatever but the fact of the matter is you guys still pay for at least 4 if not more PPVs less than pretty much anyone else.
The Ravishing One
10-05-2004, 05:16 AM
Its not really prime time viewing though for us.
Dave Youell
10-05-2004, 06:43 AM
Sorry if that seemed condescening or whatever but the fact of the matter is you guys still pay for at least 4 if not more PPVs less than pretty much anyone else.
If yopu had to watch them at 1am though, would you still consider this to be fair, seeing as everyone in the UK who watches WWe programming needs to have Sky Sports which would cost £40 a month with a sky package.
Scarface
10-05-2004, 06:55 AM
Having to stay up until 1am is a joke anyway, and now they want to charge us to do this? Frigging ridiculous.
Cruiserweight 3:16
10-05-2004, 06:56 AM
It's not exactly the bggest surprise I've heard, but it's definately not good for us UK fans. No way should the UK fans be expected to cough up more for watching a TV programme at 1 am along with the Sky Sports package
DaveWadding
10-05-2004, 07:00 AM
cry about it, shit.
I have to pay for deluxe cable to get Spike to watch RAW, Velocity etc. and that's $40/mo.
PLUS $30 14 times a year for the PPVs
and yet you cry about having to watch your free PPVs at 1 am.
The Duck
10-05-2004, 07:50 AM
It still fucking sucks bearing in mind the time we have to get up to watch the shows. The big foUr I can deal with but the others....? It'll be interesting to see the buyrates thery do.
Dave Youell
10-05-2004, 08:10 AM
cry about it, shit.
I have to pay for deluxe cable to get Spike to watch RAW, Velocity etc. and that's $40/mo.
PLUS $30 14 times a year for the PPVs
and yet you cry about having to watch your free PPVs at 1 am.
Current conversion rate = $1.78 per £1
US Market
$40 x 12 months = $480
$30 x 13 PPV's = $390
$50 x 1 Wrestlemania = $50
Total = $920
UK Market
£40 x 12 months = £480
£15 x 8 PPV's = £120
Total = £600
£600 converted into Dollors works out at $1069
So we pay more than you and get no sleep, what a great fucking deal, plus the price of our PPV's will probably go up soon.
:foc:
jerichoholic169
10-05-2004, 08:38 AM
i dont get it - they say that they're EXPANDING their presence in the UK but actually they're reducing it by making us pay for most of the PPVs!! i no longer feel sorry for you yanks!! i hope that they see sense and have a replay on wednesday/thursday night on SS1 for us at least.
At uni, i only have sky 1 and the sports channels so i wont get to see them. which is probably a good thing as staying up til 4 in the morning and then having a full day of lectures isn't very healthy!!
The Mackem
10-05-2004, 10:10 AM
I'm still not big on PPV at all in general. I paid for Royale Rumble earlier in the year but that's about it.
NoJabbaNoBogRoll
10-05-2004, 12:07 PM
It makes me sick.
Paranoid Rattlesnake
10-05-2004, 02:40 PM
wrestlemania is the only one i'll be watching then
Y2Ant
10-05-2004, 03:14 PM
Yeah this is pretty shit, but I was expecting the new contract to be all PPVs on box office, so 6 out of 14 for free isn't too bad I guess.
Royal Rumble/WrestleMania are probably the only two I would pay for, along with SummerSlam and Survivor Series providing the cards were decent. Any word on what the other four Box Office ones are?
It will die a slow death. Nobody cares enough to buy 1am Sunday PPV's in their droves.
Mike the Metal Ed
10-06-2004, 01:25 PM
Current conversion rate = $1.78 per £1
US Market
$40 x 12 months = $480
$30 x 13 PPV's = $390
$50 x 1 Wrestlemania = $50
Total = $920
UK Market
£40 x 12 months = £480
£15 x 8 PPV's = £120
Total = £600
£600 converted into Dollors works out at $1069
So we pay more than you and get no sleep, what a great fucking deal, plus the price of our PPV's will probably go up soon.
:foc:
Funny how the Americans have shut up now, isn't it?
OssMan
10-06-2004, 04:57 PM
I am used to watching only one pay per view per year.
Londoner
10-06-2004, 09:46 PM
Funny how the Americans have shut up now, isn't it?
My thoughts exactly.
As for my view on this- most PPV's suck these days anyway, so why the fuck do sky think people will be bothered enough to pay for that many PPV's that start at 1am in the first place? Especially considering the state that the company is in right now, it's hardly worth paying for that many.
Dave Youell
10-07-2004, 04:03 AM
Funny how the Americans have shut up now, isn't it?
:cool:
Cruiserweight 3:16
10-07-2004, 06:10 AM
It will die a slow death. Nobody cares enough to buy 1am Sunday PPV's in their droves.
I dunno about that. There's always loads of marks out there that would be willing to purchase the PPVs, or nag their parents into making such a stupid decision. They'd probably do at least 15,000 buys at a guess per PPV
I dunno about that. There's always loads of marks out there that would be willing to purchase the PPVs, or nag their parents into making such a stupid decision. They'd probably do at least 15,000 buys at a guess per PPV
They only have 180,000 people watching Raw now and nothing near that for Smackdown. They aren't getting 15,000 buys. And PPV buy rates dropped in the States for WWE, ECW and WCW when times were bad so why wont they drop here?
Jonster
10-07-2004, 03:21 PM
Funny how the Americans have shut up now, isn't it?
:lol:
Anyways, I'll probably only buy the big 4, and that's only if my friend's in the area so we can go halves on it (like we usually do for the PPV's).
Cruiserweight 3:16
10-07-2004, 05:13 PM
They only have 180,000 people watching Raw now and nothing near that for Smackdown. They aren't getting 15,000 buys. And PPV buy rates dropped in the States for WWE, ECW and WCW when times were bad so why wont they drop here?
You're probably right, but PPV is gonna be shoved more down the throats of the UK fans, and there's gonna be loads of marks out there that will pest their parents to allow them to purchase it. I can imagine the WWE being financially better off in having PPV's on Sky Box Office in comparison to the money they'd make off Sky Sports per PPV anyway. They'll never draw a significant amount, but it'll be enough to get by.
Aussie Skier
10-08-2004, 12:06 AM
I'll think i'll be saving the PPV's to jsut the big 4 for the one's i'm going to pay to see
Great American Bash, No Mercy, Unforgiven and Armegeddon right? :shifty:
Aussie Skier
10-08-2004, 12:08 AM
Having to stay up until 1am is a joke anyway, and now they want to charge us to do this? Frigging ridiculous.
OH WTF!!!!!!
that's crap, seriously!
I mean, I live in Australia. For example:
PPV's start usually at 9am, which isnt too bad
The Olympics didnt start till around 9pm
English Premier League Soccer starts at 10pm at the earliest, and sometimes 12 or 1 with daylight saving.
European soccer starts at about 4-6am
And we have to pay like $50 for cable tv to watch it.
i seriously dont know what your complaining about
Aussie Skier
10-08-2004, 12:51 AM
Current conversion rate = $1.78 per £1
US Market
$40 x 12 months = $480
$30 x 13 PPV's = $390
$50 x 1 Wrestlemania = $50
Total = $920
UK Market
£40 x 12 months = £480
£15 x 8 PPV's = £120
Total = £600
£600 converted into Dollors works out at $1069
So we pay more than you and get no sleep, what a great fucking deal, plus the price of our PPV's will probably go up soon.
:foc:
I dont own cable in Australia, but this is how I think it works here:
Curiously, is the cable company/s tied down with any regualtions in the UK.
Here, we are considered somewhat decentralised, except that Foxtel (cable company) has rights to all the stations. Therefore we don't get alot of stations (like ESPN, Sky etc...) altho these regs may have changed.
Cable TV: $60 * 12 months = $720
PPV's: $30 * 14 PPV's = $420
Total:
+ in addition, we only get:
Raw and Smackdown (which we used to get raw 4 days late now only 1 day late), and smackdown, we get 2 days after its televised)
We don't get:
Sunday night heat (incl the heat match b4 a PPV), Velocity, WWE experience and any other shows.
Therefore our total comes to:
$1,140
in pounds: 447.45
in US$: 804.49
Dave Youell
10-08-2004, 04:10 AM
I dont own cable in Australia, but this is how I think it works here:
Curiously, is the cable company/s tied down with any regualtions in the UK.
Here, we are considered somewhat decentralised, except that Foxtel (cable company) has rights to all the stations. Therefore we don't get alot of stations (like ESPN, Sky etc...) altho these regs may have changed.
Cable TV: $60 * 12 months = $720
PPV's: $30 * 14 PPV's = $420
Total:
+ in addition, we only get:
Raw and Smackdown (which we used to get raw 4 days late now only 1 day late), and smackdown, we get 2 days after its televised)
We don't get:
Sunday night heat (incl the heat match b4 a PPV), Velocity, WWE experience and any other shows.
Therefore our total comes to:
$1,140
in pounds: 447.45
in US$: 804.49
Ummmm, you got the sweetest deal, you pay the least and we get the same situation with the raw and smackdown tapings.
Plus you don't lose any sleep. I'd rather be in your posistion to be honest given the choice.
Plus you said in an early post that you only pay $50 for cable so knock $120 Ozzie dollars of that total
Raw's rating in Britain is now less than 100,000 on Thursdays. Bad news written all over that.
Aussie Skier
10-09-2004, 05:35 AM
Ummmm, you got the sweetest deal, you pay the least and we get the same situation with the raw and smackdown tapings.
Plus you don't lose any sleep. I'd rather be in your posistion to be honest given the choice.
Plus you said in an early post that you only pay $50 for cable so knock $120 Ozzie dollars of that total
depends on how much you want to pay. $50 is minimum
and i wasnt stating who paid more, just what the prices were
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