Forbes: WWE Doing Better Than Ever Before

[SAIYANS]

Forbes: WWE "More Successful Now Than Than Ever Before"

SPORTSMONEY | 11/01/2013 @ 3:23PM |55,213 viewsWWE's Hidden Gem

Professional sports leagues and college conferences have been getting rich television deals during the past few years. Media rights expert Chris Bevilacqua says the next winner will be World Wrestling Entertainment, whose television deals soon expire.

WWE’s last round of broadcasting deals were negotiated long before live sports content became all the rage. Based on WWE’s large live viewership, favorable demographics and big social media following, it could see its broadcasting revenue, currently $140 million, triple with its next deal.

WWE currently generates over 300 gross rating points per year combined with RAW and SmackDown. There are 50 million U.S. television households with at least one WWE fan, and of the 97 million active WWE fans, 41% are males age 18-34. WWE regularly ranks as one of the top 15 “most talked aboutâ€￾ brands on Facebook FB -0.91%.

Potential bidders for WWE’s next media deal: Fox Sports 1 (which already showcases the UFC), NBC Sports Network, or perhaps even Netflix NFLX +2.09% or Google GOOG -0.36%, who are both entertaining the idea of sports content.

Bevilacqua dishes his analysis in the video below during a recent edition of the YES Network’s Forbes SportsMoney, with co-host Bob Lorenz and myself.

I couldn't embed the video on this but they praise Cena's popularity, used of part timers like Rock and Brock as attractions, WrestleMania, Stephanie's social media and app movement, their campaigns, endorsements with going pg, Triple Hs work and the possible network. Also talk about how the wwe is more popular than the other non NFL sports and that will increase their tv deals by 4-6x as much as what they got years ago, surpassing nascar. WWEs stock also took an increase from this the past couple of days. And another interesting point is wwe since implementing Total Divas and other initiatives have gotten an average of. 6M female viewers a week

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[Deezy]

Not really sure if this give them leverage over their current network or not. They are definitely in a better position than they were when they basically backed into their USA deal after Spike dropped them hard.

Hard to say if this popularity is shared by advertising firms or sports networks as they think rasslin fans are uneducated bumpkins, hence the reason why you only see shit like chicken and free long distance advertised on their shows at their peaks of popularity.

 

[SAIYANS]

They have seemed to get more respect. Their doctors were praised, be a star, the Sslam red carpet events, kmart, Cenas clothing line, and so on. They are in better place to be accepted in a positive light than in the attitude era or Benoit scandal. Spike did them dirty, but if it came up right now, they would admit wwe is much more of a viable investment than what they have. They've seemed to diversify themselves and clean up their image well, or as well as they can

 

[The Cork]

Hard to say if this popularity is shared by advertising firms or sports networks as they think rasslin fans are uneducated bumpkins, hence the reason why you only see shit like chicken and free long distance advertised on their shows at their peaks of popularity.

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[Chris]

ESPN makes a ton of WWE references all the time in a positive light, I've seen a lot of guys either make some reference or just mention if a PPV was that weekend or something. Not treated near as negatively as before.

Also, another thing to look at is that even though ratings are down compared to years prior, they have so much more now besides just TV ratings. All the social media nonsense, the app and stuff. It adds up.