A pair of specials on the WWE Network this month could be a sign of what’s to come for the streaming service.
EVOLVE’s 10th Anniversary Celebration streamed on the Network opposite AEW Fight for the Fallen on July 13. Another in-ring special has also been added to the Network schedule for this month, with “Smackville” set to air this Saturday (July 27).
Smackville is similar to past specials like The Shield’s Final Chapter and WWE Starrcade. The WWE Network broadcast of Smackville will be an hour long. Kofi Kingston will defend the WWE Championship against Samoa Joe and Dolph Ziggler in a triple threat match, Finn Balor will face Intercontinental Champion Shinsuke Nakamura in a rematch from Extreme Rules, and there will be a musical performance segment with Elias.
The Smackville name is playing off the show taking place in Nashville, Tennessee and the city’s Bridgestone Arena, which is the home of the Nashville Predators.
After WWE revived the Starrcade brand for an untelevised house show in Greensboro, North Carolina in 2017, this year’s Thanksgiving weekend event was part house show/part WWE Network special. The show took place in Cincinnati, Ohio on Saturday before a one-hour version of Starrcade 2018 aired on Sunday.
The Network special featured a mix of matches and segments. AJ Styles defeated Samoa Joe in a steel cage match. United States Champion Shinsuke Nakamura and Rey Mysterio appeared on Miz TV, which led into Nakamura vs. Mysterio and that turning into a tag match where Mysterio & Rusev defeated Nakamura & The Miz. Tying in with the Starrcade theme, Ric Flair made an appearance during an Elias performance. It set up Nia Jax, Tamina, Mickie James & Alicia Fox interrupting them and then being defeated by Sasha Banks, Bayley, Ember Moon & Dana Brooke in an eight-woman tag.
When Rene Dupree’s lawsuit against WWE over WWE Network royalties was quickly dropped a few months ago, the question coming out of it was not if there would be another such lawsuit, but when and with whom as the next plaintiff would be. The answers? August 9th and Marcus “Buff” Bagwell.
WWE just announced that there were 1,824,000 subscribers to the network as of today, the day after WrestleMania.
That number sounds fantastic on the surface, and isn’t necessarily negative, but of that, 370,000 ordered the month for free and all growth from last year was from adding new international markets, as the number of paid domestic subscribers was actually slightly down from the day after WrestleMania last year.
The real key will be the retention rate from those 370,000 free subscribers and comparison with last year.
They expect that with the free subscribers expiring and turning into paid subscribers at the same rate as usual, that the free month will lead to an average of 1,480,000 to 1,550,000 subscribers during the second quarter, an increase of from 1,233,000 last year.
George Barrios in the conference call noted that because of the free offer, that comparisons of paid vs. unpaid would be misleading and the difference after how many of this group transforms into paid after the one month trial.
They also said that overall, they are expecting first quarter OIBDA of $19 million this year and talked about a $70 million to $75 million range for this year. That figure would get profitability back in the range of where it was before the network was launched.
Paid subscribers as of today are 1,109,000 listed in the U.S., down from 1,123,000 listed in the U.S. last year. Keep in mind that the difference is a lot of outside the U.S. subscribers in foreign countries were listed as U.S. last year, so true U.S. numbers are likely up.
International paid went from 192,000 to 345,000.
Of the free subscribers, 281,000 are listed as U.S and 89,000 are listed as outside the U.S.
The WWE averaged 1.29 million paid subscribers in the first quarter of 2016, up from 927,000 last year, so there is significant year-over-year growth, but because of the ease of getting Mania free, the paid growth for day after Mania isn’t as significant.
Had they not offered WrestleMania free, no doubt paid would be significantly higher, but the question is where paid is one month from now before you can evaluate whether this was a success or not.
