What’s the story?
The WWE held a post-WrestleMania 33 news conference today for investors and members of the business press to tout their updated WWE Network subscriber number.
The official subscription number is currently 1,949,000 with 1,661,000 being paying customers. That number is up significantly from the 1.5 million subscribers on January 31st of 2017, though still somewhat short of their rumoured goal of 2 million subscribers.
In case you didn’t know
Since its inception in February 2014, stock prices, investor confidence, and fan interest has been proportionate to how successful the Network is.
It’s a business model that is drastically different from the PPV days but one that the company hopes will please more fans and generate more money in the years to come.
The heart of the matter
The figure of two million subscribers was the WWE’s goal and the company rolled out every promotion in the book to reach it. They offered the standard free month for brand new WWE Network subscribers, but also a special three-month offer for those individuals whose subscriptions had lapsed.
That, in conjunction with the typical WrestleMania surge, is what led to the increased number overall. Chief Strategy and Financial Officer, George Barrios, spoke at the conference and said that the reported numbers represented an 11% increase in the domestic total from the same quarter in 2016.
Also read: WWE News: Dave Meltzer reveals the issues with the WWE Network
The international numbers clocked in at 497,000 overall subscribers with 424,000 of those being paying customers.
The impact
These numbers are important to the WWE. The fact that they did not hit their goal of 2 million is going to resonate throughout the company.
The name of the game to grow the subscriber number is content. Content generation is why you see WWE creating special tournaments and entering into new markets harder than ever before.
The more content they can provide, the more likely there is a piece of it that someone out there wants to consume and therefore will pay for. This type of thinking will be a constant one, on the WWE’s part, moving forward.
Author’s take
For a diehard pro wrestling fan, the WWE Network is a no-brainer to pay for. The fact that you get every single new PPV event is an incredible selling point. That money will be consistently on the table for the WWE to snatch up.
WWE needs to worry about the two other buckets of money. The casual pro wrestling fan and the “too cool for WWE” wrestling fan. We all know the casual fan. The person who watches the big shows and then harkens back to the day when they used to love Bad Ass Billy Gunn.
WWE needs to cater to these fans when creating content for the Network. This content needs to generate old emotions that make the casual fan want to pay $9.99 per month to get more. On the flip side, WWE needs to cater to that diehard fan that strictly watches the independent scene.
We all know this fan as well. The guy who swears that a performer like Daniel Bryan is more likely to pass up millions in the WWE in order to serve his artistic inclination in Ring of Honor. WWE needs to look at curating content for this fan too.
That’s why rumours of partnerships with independent promotions continue to swirl in every direction. What this means is that we all win as fans. At some point, no matter what kind of a fan you are, there will be something for you that WWE offers.
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