Vinny Lupton
Superstar
WWE's second quarter business results showed $150.2 million in revenue and $5.1 million in profits. This compared to last year's second quarter, which it should be noted included WrestleMania, which did $156.3 million in revenue, but lost $14.5 million due to early spending on the network.
WrestleMana in 2014 brought in $35 million in income that was not network related, and posted a $5.8 million profit, so if you takeWrestleMania out of the mix, while not exact because of tax issues, the actual revenue would have been $121.3 million and losses would have been well over $20 million.
The key number is the network itself, which on June 30, 2015, had 939,000 subscribers in the U.S., 217,000 subscribers outside the U.S., and at that point had 71,000 people taking advantage of free month subscriptions. The total subscriber number was 1,156,000, down from 1,327,000 at the end of the prior quarter.
The average number of daily subcribers was 1,216,000, but that's skewed by people who signed up for WrestleMania itself who would have remained subscribers into April.
Wall Street seemed happy with these numbers since the stock has risen to $19.00 per share at press time.
It was not a surprise that there was a decline, although WWE was trying to push the idea more that at this point last year they had 700,000 subscribers.
WWE would not release info or answer questions regarding subscribers who had signed up for free months during the period and the retention rate, but the end of the quarter numbers show that, as expected, the people taking advantage of free subs are way down since it became a regular thing.
They noted that the new shows like Too Hot for TV, Swerved and The Stone Cold Podcast were among the most watched shows on the network, not mentioning the Jericho shows. They also said Beast from the Beast, a live show from Tokyo, ws viewed more than any show to date on the network with the exception of the PPV events, beating out the Austin interview with Vince McMahon which had been No. 1.
WrestleMana in 2014 brought in $35 million in income that was not network related, and posted a $5.8 million profit, so if you takeWrestleMania out of the mix, while not exact because of tax issues, the actual revenue would have been $121.3 million and losses would have been well over $20 million.
The key number is the network itself, which on June 30, 2015, had 939,000 subscribers in the U.S., 217,000 subscribers outside the U.S., and at that point had 71,000 people taking advantage of free month subscriptions. The total subscriber number was 1,156,000, down from 1,327,000 at the end of the prior quarter.
The average number of daily subcribers was 1,216,000, but that's skewed by people who signed up for WrestleMania itself who would have remained subscribers into April.
Wall Street seemed happy with these numbers since the stock has risen to $19.00 per share at press time.
It was not a surprise that there was a decline, although WWE was trying to push the idea more that at this point last year they had 700,000 subscribers.
WWE would not release info or answer questions regarding subscribers who had signed up for free months during the period and the retention rate, but the end of the quarter numbers show that, as expected, the people taking advantage of free subs are way down since it became a regular thing.
They noted that the new shows like Too Hot for TV, Swerved and The Stone Cold Podcast were among the most watched shows on the network, not mentioning the Jericho shows. They also said Beast from the Beast, a live show from Tokyo, ws viewed more than any show to date on the network with the exception of the PPV events, beating out the Austin interview with Vince McMahon which had been No. 1.