{"id":10659,"date":"2016-02-11T11:08:30","date_gmt":"2016-02-11T17:08:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=10659"},"modified":"2016-02-11T15:06:18","modified_gmt":"2016-02-11T21:06:18","slug":"10659","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2016\/02\/11\/10659\/","title":{"rendered":"WWE CONFERENCE CALL &#8211; McMahon addresses sagging TV ratings &#038; WWE&#8217;s standing with NBCU; will NXT land on U.S. TV?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-1935830171\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><p>During Thursday&#8217;s quarterly conference call with investors, WWE CEO Vince McMahon was asked to address\u00a0the yearly decline in TV ratings for top programming Raw and Smackdown in 2015.<\/p>\n<p>McMahon said, &#8220;Ours\u00a0<span class=\"s1\">are down, but not as much as networks in general that we\u2019re on.&#8221; McMahon added that not as many people are watching television as before, for any number of reasons (e.g. cord-cutting).<\/span><\/p>\n<p>McMahon then stressed\u00a0that WWE is taking a &#8220;New Media&#8221; approach to looking at TV Ratings as part of the &#8220;total ecosystem&#8221; of content consumption along with YouTube views and other digital methods of watching WWE programming.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">&#8220;It&#8217;s not just about TV ratings,&#8221; McMahon said of WWE&#8217;s internal view.\u00a0&#8220;We&#8217;re looking at total ecosystem. We used to live and\u00a0die by TV Ratings in Old Media.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">McMahon placed emphasis on the overall environment, but did not address WWE&#8217;s role in contributing, such as Creative issues or the effect of three-hour Raws on the roster and viewers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">&#8211; Later in the conference call, McMahon was asked how their TV partner NBC Universal views WWE content and sagging TV ratings fresh off a new long-term content deal.\u00a0McMahon replied by stressing\u00a0WWE&#8217;s live (Raw) or semi-live (Smackdown) programming being a huge asset.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">&#8220;One thing from a NBCU standpoint is,\u00a0generally speaking, we\u2019re live programming. That\u2019s tremendous value. We\u2019re going to be even more valuable going forward,&#8221; McMahon said before stressing WWE&#8217;s &#8220;total ecosystem&#8221; internal view.\u00a0\u201cWe&#8217;re poised to take advantage not just in terms of promotion, but a financial standpoint. As we continue on, we&#8217;ll be more and more valuable to everyone.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">&#8211; Another question during the conference call was whether there is an inverse relationship between sagging TV ratings and increased WWE Network consumption.<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-1987666623\" class=\"pwtor-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\">Financial executive George Barrios did not sound convinced about the two being lumped together in that\u00a0comparison. Barrios said WWE looks at &#8220;the whole ecosystem&#8221; of content consumption and how engaged the audience is across the board. &#8220;When everything works well, it works together,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Overall, WWE does not see a situation where one week&#8217;s TV rating going up or down then has an\u00a0effect on Network subscriber levels.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">&#8211; One of the keys for WWE will be deciding which content goes where (traditional TV, WWE Network, or digital platforms). This led to a question about whether WWE should license their popular NXT Network\u00a0show on U.S. TV.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Barrios said they have a &#8220;great problem&#8221; of trying to decide where their content should go. He lumped NXT with other Network-related content as part of the decision-making process on whether to keep things where they are or move shows somewhere else.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Barrios noted NXT is\u00a0licensed on main television in some international markets, so they are flexible when it comes to NXT, but there are currently no plans to\u00a0move NXT from where it currently is on WWE Network.<\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-4033907899\"><div id=\"pwtor-1588303456\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>During Thursday&#8217;s quarterly conference call with investors, WWE CEO Vince McMahon was asked to address\u00a0the yearly decline in TV ratings for top programming Raw and Smackdown in 2015. McMahon said, &#8220;Ours\u00a0are down, but not as <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2016\/02\/11\/10659\/\" title=\"WWE CONFERENCE CALL &#8211; McMahon addresses sagging TV ratings &#038; WWE&#8217;s standing with NBCU; will NXT land on U.S. TV?\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1567,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[96,71,1710,689,1714,112,1716],"class_list":["post-10659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news_wwe","tag-raw","tag-wwe","tag-wwe-earnings","tag-wwe-financials","tag-wwe-q42015","tag-wwe-raw","tag-wwe-tv-ratings"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Rawlogo_3x2.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10659"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10659\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10692,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10659\/revisions\/10692"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}