8 Potential Consequences Of WWE's Rumoured Budget Cuts
Brace yourselves: Talking Smack's cancellation may have only been the beginning.
WWE's finances are in a strange place at the moment. While the company continue to generate more revenue than ever before from a variety of different streams, profits haven't followed suit. WWE recently reported a net income figure of $5.1 million for Q2 2017, but stated on the accompanying earnings call that budget cuts were the main reason for their profitability, leading to speculation that more may be on the way - and on a larger scale.
The company's cost-cutting has been increasingly visible over the past few weeks. The cancellation of Talking Smack and Unfiltered With Renee Young stands as the most obvious example, but WWE have also recently stopped using pyro on television and pay-per-views, with last week's Wrestling Observer Newsletter confirming budgetary constraints as the reason.
WWE aren't in any immediate danger, and their finances, though mixed, are relatively healthy on the whole. Regardless, the company look dead-set on tightening a few financial nuts and bolts ahead of their next earnings report.
Talking Smack will be missed, but its cancellation may have only been the first domino to fall. If so, the cuts will continue to materialise in increasingly noticeable ways over the coming months...
8. Further Network Cancellations
The WWE Network is the foundation on which the company's product will be built upon for decades to come. The streaming service accounted for 25.5% of the company's revenue in Q2 2017, and Chief Financial Officer George Barrios has previously said he envisions a day when all WWE programming is delivered through video on-demand.
One might assume that this would mean cramming the WWE Network with as much original content as possible to increase its value for money and push for new subscribers. It's surprising, then, that the company's most noticeable budget cut thus far has been Network-based, with Talking Smack and Unfiltered With Renee Young both biting the dust within the past few weeks.
Given that the former was regularly among the service's most watched series, it's logical to assume that WWE will look further down the listings and start slashing shows that aren't as popular. This could mean the end of semi-regular series like Ride Along and Table For 3, or even the company's acclaimed 24 documentaries. With fewer non-wrestling shows recorded throughout Q2, WWE increased their Network profit margin by $9.5 million compared to the previous year, so expect this to continue.