CLAIM: Vince Owns A Dinosaur Skull
In his black-and-red office at WWE headquarters in Stamford, Conn. McMahon stares at a stark reminder of what motivates him. To the left of his desk, mounted on square panels of what looks like scarlet fur, is an enormous dinosaur skull. The fearsome open jaw was a gift from his son-in-law, Paul Levesque, better known to wrestling fans by his nom de guerre, Triple H. And the metaphor isnt lost on McMahon.
It was photographed in the July 23, 2012 Multi-channel News interview. In that article
VERDICT: True. And Its Glorious
CLAIM: 21% Of WWE Viewers Are Under 18
Or it could be the competitionwhether its mixed martial arts, the NFL or Marvel superhero movies that are vying for his younger viewers, 21% of whom are under 18.
Their website says 19%. Either way, that sounds right. What they don't talk about is how their audience also skews old - over half of their audience (58%) is over the age of 34.
VERDICT: True.
CLAIM: WWE Spent $75 Million Preparing For The Network
Over the past two years WWE has spent $75 million preparing for the launch of the WWE Network, which went live on Feb. 24.
Thats an interesting number. At the
last conference call they said:
Daniel Moore CJS Securities, Inc.: Okay, and then lastly and then I will jump back in queue, I know its tough to break out but what would be a ballpark range total spend in 2013 on the P&< for the build out our anticipation of the network?George A. Barrios: We probably had about $12 million that you could directly associate with the network on the P&<, but obviously that doesnt include the marketing cost, customer services cost, transmission cost and so on so forth that, come about when we go live.
VERDICT: Plausible. Thats higher than what has been broken out specifically on the financial filings, but all told $75M is very reasonable for a project of this magnitude.
CLAIM: Vince Walked Away From Being A TV Channel
He has been promising fans and investors a WWE Network since 2011, and in that time the vision for it has changed dramatically. It was first conceived as WWEs version of the MLB or NFL Network. In theory a channel devoted to wrestling makes even more sense than a professional sports league, since, unlike baseball or football, WWE doesnt have an off-season. (It puts on more than 300 live shows, 52 weeks a year.) But McMahon claims that model was only going to generate an anemic 20 cents per month per subscriber, roughly on par with third-tier networks like MSNBC and Bravo, $0.21 and $0.24 a month, respectively (almighty ESPN commands an astronomical $5.54 a month). So he walked away.
Thats the second time Ive heard specific numbers for what WWE would have received had they pursued the WWE Network being a regular channel offered on Cable or Satellite. The Vince walked away story was
covered by the LA Times back in January. Still, there's some puzzling elements. One, we know that Vince McMahon has been seeking his own distribution channel ever since negotiations with Spike went sour and WWE was forced to take a lousy deal with USA. Two, we know that Vince McMahon tried to acquire/rebrand channels like SyFy to be the WWE Network so he'd have leverage and opportunity for the future. Three, the simple maths suggests that at 20 cents/subscriber x 75 million homes is $150M annually which could be split in a venture between a company like Comcast/NBCU and WWE with far less logistical difficulties that comes with launching an over-the-top network. We also know that WWE struggled enormously with convincing MVPDs (Multi-channel Video Programming Distributors) to get on board with either WWE Network as a Premium Channel model or even accepting that WWE Network would be streaming PPVs for $9.99/month. CFO George Barrios
lamented exactly this during his UBS presentation in December.
VERDICT: Only telling half of the story.
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