The Ratings Debacle
 

Hi,

We have all heard stuff about WWE ratings being in the tank, but very little about how we actually consume the product.

I would like to know how the TPWW Forum actually watches WWE Raw on a weekly basis.

Do you watch live on the USA Network, do you DVR it for later watching, do you download it through a torrent site, do you stream through Hulu, or do you stream it weekly through another source?

Usually watch it with about an hour delay on DVR so I can fast forward through commercials.

Yep. Also, I don't know if I'd class the company's current ratings as a debacle. Just growing pains in a down cycle. This is very reminiscent of 93-97 WWF, I feel.

It's not anywhere near that bad though. WWE, while not as successful as they were from 98-2001, is still a strong and healthy company. I think the issues overall are that wrestling has become a niche product again and they are spending a lot of money expanding into all forms of media/entertainment and failing because the WWE brand is stigmatized again as "rasslin".

Usually watch on YouTube

I kind of pulled that from the Ryan Clark bs I read on the main page. The lower ratings are a direct result of how many distribution points we, as fans, have to watch the product.

I know that a billion dollar corp like WWE has people to study and analyze these things, but I wonder if they put a lot of stock into live viewership too.

I like to watch the steam on Sky Sports UK. I'm from St. Louis, MO and I just kind of get a kick out of the British commercials.

I watch RAW in the comfort of my living room and have an iPad resting near my dick and balls for comfort and warmth.

I watch it on Sportsnet 360 in Canada

Fuck the ratings. If you enjoy the show that's all the ratings you should care about. Why worry about them. They are only for advertisement dick heads.

Usually watch it on DVR. Sometimes skip through a match here and there. Used to have a DVR (or something similar maybe capture card) where you could play it a little bit faster and still hear the commentary but not anymore.

I watch Smackdown, Main Event, and NXT on Hulu, and I watch PPVs on wwe.com. If there was some way I could legally watch the east coast broadcast of Raw, I would; but I can't, so I watch it via a random online stream.

I watch RAW on teh TV on USA (fuck yeah) Network.

TV ratings only matter for shows that are in danger of being cancelled, since I doubt very much that RAW would ever be cancelled it don't matter.

I download it or youtube it btw

I watch Raw live, I'll catch Smackdown if I happen to be home on Friday, otherwise I'll just skip it. I buy the Rumble, Wrestlemania and Summerslam to watch with friends, but download the other PPVs to watch at my convenience over the following week.

This. Except I try and find a stream of the PPVs I don't buy if have any interest heading in.

Really? People seem to talk about their viewing habits all the time.

M mostly YouTube or torrent stuff. I'm considering getting Hulu for a more reliable source I can watch more readily.

You know, ratings have been declining for almost a decade now. At some point, people have to give up this whole "natural cycle" nonsense.

Keep in mind that these are ratings that are below what they actually panicked once upon a time.

Ratings matter to any show that wants to make money. I'm assuming WWE wants their shows to make money.

That in itself provides a problem, however. Most of these points of distribution don't translate to ad revenue and the like for WWE. People watching it elsewhere doesn't change whether it's a "debacle" or not (it's more of a boondoggle).

Also, I'm not sure that asking on an IWC website is necessarily the best place to get a good picture. That's like going into a record store, polling people on music buying, and determining CDs are still a robust medium. TPWW is rife with people who will readily declare some of the lowest-rated shows some of the best.

And you know, that's fine. People can enjoy what they want (shock!). Fair enough. I enjoy the hell out of shows that wish they could get the ratings Raw gets on its worst days. But when you're looking for an overall state of the viewership, looking to people who think JBL had an awesome title reign is probably the wrong way to go.

I either stream the east coast feed and have it on in the background to switch to if something good is going on or if I'm not home at the time I find a video of it later on.

Almost always watch Raw live. Seldom watch Smackdown since the end of the brand split, unless the spoilers indicate that Daniel Bryan or the Shield are going to kick some mega ass.