{"id":19680,"date":"2016-05-17T10:34:14","date_gmt":"2016-05-17T15:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=19680"},"modified":"2016-06-16T16:36:16","modified_gmt":"2016-06-16T21:36:16","slug":"wwe-network-will-wwe-find-predicted-3-0-million-subscribers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2016\/05\/17\/wwe-network-will-wwe-find-predicted-3-0-million-subscribers\/","title":{"rendered":"WWE Network &#8211; Where will WWE find the predicted 3.0 million subscribers?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-1507034247\" 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>In 2015, WWE financial executive George Barrios predicted that WWE Network would eventually reach 3.0 million-plus paid subscribers.<\/p>\n<p>At the time, it seemed like a far-fetched claim considering WWE was struggling to reach 1.0 million paid subscribers &#8211; the break-even point for the Network. Also, international subscriptions were just a drop in the bucket.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s now apparent the leap will come from the international market. How long it takes to get there is the big question, which<a href=\"http:\/\/seekingalpha.com\/article\/3975598-wwe-network-international-marketplace?auth_param=2etp1:1bjluaq:8ad879b18ca4c6ebb3ed2682e27fab94&amp;uprof=53#alt1\" target=\"_blank\"> financial website Seeking Alpha broke down in a strong review of WWE Network in the international marketplace<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Notably, WWE released a chart in their Annual Shareholder meeting breaking down each country&#8217;s affinity for WWE and potential for subscribing to the Network.<\/p>\n<p>The chart shows India as the #1 international market in terms of &#8220;strong global affinity.&#8221; Then, there is Japan, which has about half of India&#8217;s &#8220;global affinity&#8221; for WWE, but has the second largest number of available broadband households behind the U.S. to access the Internet-based Network.<\/p>\n<p>Financial executive George Barrios noted on the First Quarter 2016 conference call last week that India is their top international market for growth, but right now the Network is not a good value proposition for the fanbase. One is the lack of high-speed Internet access and the other is WWE having a strong regular TV presence. The question is how long will it take for WWE to turn &#8220;affinity&#8221; into strong subscriber numbers.<\/p>\n<p>In other conference calls, Barrios has downplayed Japan as a market the company cares about, but not as much as India and other emerging markets in Asia. The company especially wants to get into China, which has a massive population that could boost WWE&#8217;s Network subscriber numbers just reaching a fraction of the people.<\/p>\n<p>The number of domestic Network subscriptions has been flat for a year now.\u00a0It appears the best way for WWE to\u00a0reach Barrios&#8217;s goal is\u00a0marketing the\u00a0Network to each individual country.<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-1873776321\" 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>Going back in time to 2014 when the Network launched in the U.S. only, WWE planned to roll out the Network on a country-by-country basis to launch in each individual language. When the initial Network numbers came in at a disappointing level, WWE decided to open up the U.S. version of the Network to a vast majority of the world, delaying the customization to each language.<\/p>\n<p>The key to future growth in the international sphere will likely come from offering the Network in each country&#8217;s language, combined with reaching the untapped market of China and expanding market of India.<\/p>\n<p>But, WWE also has stars on their roster like Shinsuke Nakamura, Asuka, and Hideo Itami for a reason. Reaching a country like Japan with high-speed Internet capabilities is also a key factor over the next 2-3 years.<\/p>\n<p><strong>International Paid Trendline<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Q1-2015: 196,000 paid subs (post-WM31) (15% total)<\/li>\n<li>Q2-2015: 217,000 subs (19% total)<\/li>\n<li>Q3-2015: 243,000 subs (20% total)<\/li>\n<li>Q4-2015: 277,000 subs (23% total)<\/li>\n<li>Q1-2016: 330,000 subs (24% total)<\/li>\n<li>April 4: 345,000 subs (day after WM32) (24% total)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-526244873\"><div id=\"pwtor-4261581974\"><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>In 2015, WWE financial executive George Barrios predicted that WWE Network would eventually reach 3.0 million-plus paid subscribers. At the time, it seemed like a far-fetched claim considering WWE was struggling to reach 1.0 million <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2016\/05\/17\/wwe-network-will-wwe-find-predicted-3-0-million-subscribers\/\" title=\"WWE Network &#8211; Where will WWE find the predicted 3.0 million subscribers?\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1448,"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":[71,2543,251,2326],"class_list":["post-19680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news_wwe","tag-wwe","tag-wwe-china","tag-wwe-network","tag-wwe-q1-2016"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/WWENetwork_3x2.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19680","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=19680"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19687,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19680\/revisions\/19687"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}