Quote:
Originally Posted by Noid
I think the best thing for the WWE Network is that it still hasn't launched in some major markets.
I don't think anyone was arguing about overall revenue intake other than CyNick. I'm fairly certain this was about less people watching RAW and whether or not that was connected to a lifeless and unambitious product.
How do WWE's expenses come out next to this revenue? What are their actual profits like? And why did their stock drop today?
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This.
CyNick just takes irrelevant news like an increase in Network subscriber numbers and uses that to leap to the conclusion that the ratings don't matter because the network numbers increased and so the product isn't bad and shouldn't be criticized.
He completely ignores the fact that revenues and subscriber numbers may be up but doesn't mention what WWE's expenses are, nor the fact that subscriber numbers fell almost 10% this summer after Mania.
Nevermind the fact that WWE also wasn't able to get the TV rights deals for RAW and Smackdown that they were expecting. Last year they were expecting and promising investors at least a 100% increase in TV rights fees with NBC Universal and only managed to get a 70% increase after NBC Universal initially rejected WWE's original offer.
In addition, he doesn't address the fact that with the release of the earnings report, etc., WWE's stock fell over 12% today and has been somewhat consistently pretty low over the past 5 years with the exception of a few spikes, the greatest being the spike for the launch of the network.
Investors don't like a poor primary product, especially during a period of transition in business models. For a company that can't maintain or increase the quality of its primary product and are losing regular viewers, how is it going to successfuly handle a transition in business model?