Vince McMahon took part in today's WWE conference call, speaking out on a range of subjects including WWE Raw rating declines and how injuries may impact upon WrestleMania 32. On the issue of Raw ratings, which are down 6% in quarter 4 2015 compared to last year, Vince said "Our ratings are down but not as much as the networks we are on. People aren't watching TV as much." He's right, WWE ratings are down, but not as badly as other shows. WWE Raw is still the crown jewel of USA Network. He then suggested different mediums that people are consuming content, including YouTube. He was crowing about having 8 billion views and being the number one sports channel. Clearly, they have lost some viewership to that. An investor asked McMahon about that later in the call, enquiring about tension between NBCU paying for content and what then goes on YouTube. McMahon responded "We are live programming. That's tremendous value to NBCU." Another investor then called him out on the fact that YouTube content could be featured on his own platforms, like the WWE App or WWE Network. Vince talked about a media eco-system, and he's right, there is benefits to an all encompassing approach. But there's also a sense of his continued obsession with social media and digital, when in fact he should be strengthening his brands in their key areas of business. A load of Twitter followers and YouTube viewers doesn't reflect the reality of WWE's relatively lowly place in popular culture. As for injuries impacting WrestleMania 32, McMahon responded "We'll be creative, it will be an awesome WrestleMania." He's right. Injuries shouldn't be too big of a problem, with the only really big loss being John Cena. Yes, Seth Rollins is out, but it isn't like he would have made a massive difference in terms of watching or not watching the show. As for Orton and Bryan, they were only ever pencilled in as mid card acts. Cena was the one big draw for the mainstream, but he'll likely still have a spot as a character. You can read more about the business performance here. The stock has reacted negatively in the time since the release, but it is showing signs of rebounding after McMahon's conference call.
