6 Things We Learned From WWE's Fourth Quarter Earnings
4. Network Subscriber Numbers Are Up
Revenue growth aside, this is the big one. The financial report states that as of January 31st, 2017, WWE Network’s paid subscription count had reached the 1.5 million mark. This breaks down to roughly 1.1 million subscribers in the United States and 400,000 abroad, and the Network averaged 1.41 million paid subscribers throughout the fourth quarter, which is in-line with expectations.
This is an increase on Q4 2015, but a slight decrease on Q3 2016’s average of 1.46 million. This was to be expected, however, as Q3’s biggest show, SummerSlam, is generally considered a bigger deal than Survivor Series, Q4’s biggest. The report notes that WWE expect these numbers to increase again in Q1 2017, albeit at a slightly slower rate on a year-by-year basis.
Barrios states that the Network’s growth and success has seen them become the USA’s 5th largest streaming service. In terms of content, the Network was up to over over 7,000 hours of hosted video content by the end of 2016, and the company picked up 15 new “blue chip” advertisers since 2015. Naturally, the increase in subscriber numbers brought an increase in revenue, with WWE pocketing $180.9 million from the Network in 2016.