WWE Increases PPV Cost

[JurassicBonez]

The WrestleMania 26 pay-per-view will carry a $54.95 price tag, according to MultiChannel.com. Meanwhile, as previously noted, the other pay-per-views will rise in cost to $44.95 from the previous $39.95 price.

"We're looking at building long term growth and focusing on providing value to our customers," stated a WWE spokesperson regarding the recent name changes made for several pay-per-view events. To read the full story, visit MultiChannel.com.

I think that's rediculous. This will just send more people into looking for streams. I haven't ordered a WWE ppv since Mania 25 and that appears to be the last one. I ain't paying that much for a ppv. Let alone a WWE ppv. To pay that to see pretty much the same thing every month is crazy. Their ppv numbers are declining terribly, and their way of fixing that is increasing prices? Smart move. On the bright side, they can stop coming up with bull shit excuses for the ppv drops and blame it on the ppv increase.

What are your thoughts on this?

EDIT: HD PPV's will still cost $10 extra on top of that.

 

[Hidden Blaze]

Well I guess I won't be getting anymore PPV's. Thats f'n crazy right there. Plus there copying TNA with this move now lol....TNA just did this a few days or so ago.

 

[MizMasta3000]

Where is the logic here WWE? If your not getting numbers, why increase ppv cost. I might stll pay for WM 26 as I do every year. ppvs arent even that great.

 

[CenaMark54]

Obviously they did research and determined that the increased revenue from the price change will outweigh the potential drop in buys. PPV buys don't matter to the share holders, they only care about the bottomline.

They didn't just increase the price for the sake of increasing the price.

 

[JurassicBonez]

They didn't just increase the price for the sake of increasing the price.

Nobody said anything of the sort, so where you're getting that from I don't know.....


So when your ppv numbers are dropping by the thousands, you increase the cost to gain more? They should be focusing on why their numbers are dropping and fix that. Reduce the cost of them to gain more buys, not increase.

 

[Next Big Thing]

So when your ppv numbers are dropping by the thousands, you increase the cost to gain more? They should be focusing on why their numbers are dropping and fix that. Reduce the cost of them to gain more buys, not increase.

You obviously misunderstood what Cenamark said. The WWE's logic in increasing the price is that they believe that even if the they do lose some buys, they will still ultimately make more money from the PPV’s.

I haven't been following what the PPV buys have been recently, but lets say for example they get an average of 200,000 buys. At their current price of $39.95 that comes out to $7,990,000. Now lets say with the $5 increase they lose 15,000 buys and get 185,000 buys. 185,000 buys at $44.95 comes out to $8,315,750. So despite losing 15,000 buys, they would make roughly $300,000 more from that PPV.

Of course there are no guarantees in doing this as they could lose 100,000 buys and make much less money, but I think the point Cenamark was trying to make was that the WWE obviously put in enough time researching this to think it will be a good business move for them and they must believe it will make their PPV's more profitable.

 

[JurassicBonez]

Ok, I understand that. I did mis-understood. But wouldn't decreasing the cost ultimatly bring in more money, cause that in turn should bring in more buys. There are people that say they don't order ppv's because of the price. Increasing the price wont make it any better. That's lesser buys, not more. Decreasing an already high price just it self, should (in theory) increase buys.

 

[Next Big Thing]

But wouldn't decreasing the cost ultimatly bring in more money, cause that in turn should bring in more buys. There are people that say they don't order ppv's because of the price. Increasing the price wont make it any better. That's lesser buys, not more. Decreasing an already high price just it self, should (in theory) increase buys.

Well it probably would increase buys, but the question is would it increase the buys enough to increase the revenue they gross from the PPV. Lets use the 200,000 buys example again. So at $39.95 they would make $7,990,000. Now lets say they lowered the price by $5 to 34.95. Now it’s $5 cheaper and they gain 15,000 buys and now get 215,000 buys. So with 215,000 buys at 34.95, they would make $7,514,250 from the PPV. That’s nearly $500,000 less than they would make if they kept the price at $39,95 but got 15,000 less buys.

$34,95 – 228,000 buys = $8,000,000
$39,95 – 200,000 buys = $8,000,000
$44,95 – 178,000 buys = $8,000,000

I just rounded off the number to $8,000,000, but what this shows is the amount of buys it would take at 3 different costs to make $8,000,000. If they lower the price by $5 you would need to gain 28,000 buys to just keep making the same amount of money. If you increase the price by $5 you can lose 22,000 buys and still make the same amount of money. The point of all of this is to show you that if you decrease the price you have to gain far more buys to increase the revenue of the PPV, than the number of buys you can lose if you increase the price but still make more money. When we are talking about $5, I don’t think you will add enough buys to make it worth while to actually decrease the price, and on the other side of that, at only a $5 increase I don’t think that many people would stop ordering the PPV’s to make it a poor move that would result in the PPV’s making less profit.

The main point is to really not look at the buyrate so much, but look at the actual profit you make from the PPV’s. And by my examples it would seem that an increased price should result in the WWE making more of a profit from their PPV’s.

 

[noumenon]

So $64 for Mania this year huh? Looks like my Mania party is gonna be BYOB.

 

[Qwake]

I still can't believe you guys buy these PPVs, they cost $20 in my country and we get them live lol. They really aren't worth their money.

 

[noumenon]

I find internet streams for every other PPV. My friends and I have the annual Wrestlemania party where we all get drunk, cook a bunch of food and chip in for the PPV.
Not like back in the day when everyone had a hot box and you could watch the PPV's for free.

 

[Kizza]

I still can't believe you guys buy these PPVs, they cost $20 in my country and we get them live lol. They really aren't worth their money.

This. Streams or download after the PPV. The 30 bucks for a potentially horrible PPV isn't worth it.

 

[Beer Money Army]

wwe needs to learn on dealing with customer service for there PPV's. If you bring on good ppv's and slightly drop the price of ppv, you will gain more ppv buyrates.

putting up ppv prices is gonna drive away customers. imo wwe should do a survey towards people/customers asking them what drives them into purchasing WWE PPV's.

some questions could be:

Championship Matches on PPV's?
who do you wanna see on PPV's
which one you wanna see less of?
what specified matches you wanna see? (but dont over do it with gimmick matches)
should every PPV has all 3 brands involved?

I understand saving big matches for mania/slam are important, But the other PPV's should be treated as important as well, if you wanna produce over 12 PPV's a year. A hit and miss PPV always ends with Bad Buyrates inwhich means less profit towards WWE.

Another idea with urchasing PPV's they should include a merchandise from ordering a PPV. Maybe a T-shirt or hat or other type WWE merchandise. If you include this it can make the customer happy as well and that's always important, as happy customers will always come back.

 

[Next Big Thing]

wwe needs to learn on dealing with customer service for there PPV's. If you bring on good ppv's and slightly drop the price of ppv, you will gain more ppv buyrates.

putting up ppv prices is gonna drive away customers.

If you scroll up and read my post, you will see that I explained why this will more than likely turn out to be a good move by the WWE.

 

[LKP]

Well for the increase i would ask for more in a ppv. Cause a wwe ppv is like raw or smackdown minus the ad breaks. So improve the ppvs and make them worth paying for. More twists and turns etc etc. Im in the UK, i hope they dont increase sky box office by a lot. If they do im not buying it.