8 Things We Learned From WWE's First Quarter 2017 Earnings
7. Operating Income Is Way Down
Despite the increased revenue, WWE reported a significant decline in total operating income last week. While Q1 2016 accumulated $27.6 million of OIBDA (a profit measurement), this year’s figure is $18.6 million - a decline of 33%. This primarily comes from an $16.8 million jump in WWE’s “Corporate & Other” outgoings, which the company defines as follows:-
“These expenses include corporate G&A expenses as well as Business Support costs, such as sales, marketing, and talent development costs, which are not allocated to specific segments.”
George Barrios addressed these figures on the conference call, and attributed them to production costs for the UK Title Tournament and Holy Foley. If this is the case, the figure should decline throughout Q2, but forthcoming events like the women’s tournament and rumoured Asian and Latin American championships could eat into profits later in the year.
The executives were relatively lackadaisical on the topic, pointing to the company’s social media engagement and product diversification as signs of their ongoing success. They project OIBDA to sit between $13-17 next quarter, with a target of $100 million throughout the year, which would represent a 25% increase on 2016’s total figure.