Network thoughts

[Deezy]

Always thought WWE network being the hub of pro wrestling is the way they should and will eventually go.

Got a great streaming service, especially by wrestling standards, sure there has been lag issues, but so does every other live stream service provider.

They could have cheap products to stream and take the load off their production teams and charge a flat rate for any company they would like to have a relationship with and the Indy product gets a mainstream(by wrestling standards) platform to try increase their brand awareness.

It's win/win.

 

[Cwalker]

I've enjoyed it so far. I haven't gone into the archives to watch past Raws like I wanted to when the network was first announced but NXT and PPV has made up for it. There's a lot of network exclusive content that's actually pretty good like Table for 3, Legends with JBL, etc.

Like you said, the lag issue can be frustrating but that's to be expected with anything like this(Hulu, Netflix) but it's something small and the lag isn't that bad if you have a decent connection.

All in all, is it perfect? No but there's a good content quality and it's cheap so I'm not complaining

 

[Kiffy Lube]

I've had very few lag issues with the network. The worst was I think it was Fastlane durin' the pre-show the whole thing went down. However, they fixed the issue before the show so I didn't have to demand refunds.

One thing I do I dislike is if I miss Raw or SmackDown! they don't upload the episode until a month later. I'm guessin' it's because of contracts with the USA Network but they should still fuckin' change that.

 

[Deezy]

I have a feeling Raw and Smackdown will go to their network if their next contract isn't half a billion.

 

[Cena's Jeans Shorts]

The option to take all programming to the network is certainly a very real and probably an effective bargaining chip for tv contract negotiations. Depending on how much the nature of TV changes in North America, I think the WWE will always have a strong interest in keeping some sort of free weekly TV show available to get the widest coverage possible for ad / tv revenue and to act as a 2 to 3 hour commercial to shill the network, games, and overall product.

Still wouldn't surprise me to see them make that move in 2 or 3 years.

 

[Deezy]

With the TV landscape as niche as it is, WWE going strictly to their own network would make perfect sense. They could get advertisers on their brand specific shows.

 

[Crippler]

my only real problem and it's like a 1% issue is the way they upload e.g add all the raws from 2000 and 2001, then move to add all ECW TV then WCW Nitro. Now add the 2000 Smackdowns like 6 months later. Streaming has been so much better the past couple of PPV's. Plus now the're adding new shows, so yeah i will continue to give my 9.99 without a care in the world

 

[Cena's Jeans Shorts]

With the TV landscape as niche as it is, WWE going strictly to their own network would make perfect sense. They could get advertisers on their brand specific shows.

The only drawback I see there is the number of subscribers the network has. Would going 100% subscription based content prevent them from getting as many new mainstream fans as they would by having some content on one of the biggest cable networks? They seem to have hit the number of subscribers needed to do well financially. But does going 100% subscription-only content start to cut the potential merchandising / game sales they might have garnered by having some free content on a major cable network.

I'm talking kids whose parents refuse to pay for a rasslin network, but are fine letting their kid watch Smackdown on USA and are willing to buy these kids action figures, games, etc.

 

[Deezy]

The only drawback I see there is the number of subscribers the network has. Would going 100% subscription based content prevent them from getting as many new mainstream fans as they would by having some content on one of the biggest cable networks? They seem to have hit the number of subscribers needed to do well financially. But does going 100% subscription-only content start to cut the potential merchandising / game sales they might have garnered by having some free content on a major cable network.

I'm talking kids whose parents refuse to pay for a rasslin network, but are fine letting their kid watch Smackdown on USA and are willing to buy these kids action figures, games, etc.

Float around that 1.8 million subscribers yearly and that's roughly 250 mil every year in revenue. None too shabby if you ask me.

 

[Shakey]

i really only few issues with network> i wish they would stop putting new shows on after raw. I understand that they want to push it put why not build another night like tuesday? Also i wish that they would put more older shows on like Superstars or Challenge to fill the gaps between the older ppvs.

 

[Cena's Jeans Shorts]

Float around that 1.8 million subscribers yearly and that's roughly 250 mil every year in revenue. None too shabby if you ask me.

That's 1.8 million for Wrestlemania month this year. Third quarter 2015 had them at 1.3 million, end of 2015 had them at 1.23 million. Great revenue for the WWE in any of those cases. But compare the 1.8 million worldwide subscribers to a Feb. episode of Monday Raw that had 3.7 million viewers. By having a wider audience via a major cable network, how well does that translate to better merchandising or enticing people to get the PPVs and backlog of shows through the WWE Network's pay wall?

That's my point. By having 100% of their content behind a subscription pay wall, does that hinder their ability to grow the network and sell their other products more effectively?

 

[FalconPunch]

Are you saying there should be some free content on the Network? Interesting. Could work. Like a random WCW PPV, and old ECW TV show, old WWE PPV. Give people a flavour of the ease.

 

[Deezy]

That's called the free month offer.

Also, can pay a million dollars for a Superbowl ad that will tell people that the WWE Network is the exclusive home to all WWE content if they don't get half a billion from USA and their conglomerates.

Still think them offering their network to showcase other indy shows would make their network more must see, ajd better for the fans of those niche products since they won't suffer feed losses like ippv has done for years.