WWE More Profitable Now Than During Attitude Era
Money, money, money, money, moneeeee-eeeeey...
Across this past year, we've all seen WWE proudly championing record revenue while likewise making several mass rounds of releases due to "budget cuts", and there's now new information out there to indicate that WWE is currently a more profitable company than it was during the white-hot days of the Attitude Era.
As per the ever-impressive Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics, the "increased value of live sports broadcast rights" is the driving factor in all of this.
WWE is more profitable now than in its most popular era, 1998-2000, because of increased value of live sports broadcast rights.
AdvertisementWWE makes the growing majority of its revenue from Raw & Smackdown TV rights fees and WWE Network licensing (U.S.) and subs (int'l). pic.twitter.com/7279oowVrM
— Brandon Thurston (@BrandonThurston) August 7, 2021
Of course, WWE has huge deals in place with FOX and USA Network domestically, with significant rights fees likewise incoming from all across the globe, such as BT Sports for UK audiences, and also the reach of the WWE Network and the subsequent Peacock deal tied to that for US fans. Then there's the obvious financial rewards offered up as part of WWE's deal to put on two Saudi Arabia-based specials per year.
While clearly the Attitude Era days were watched by a ridiculously larger amount of people than the current product, the simple fact is TV deals then were nowhere near what they are today. Similarly, it was during that period that the then-WWF became a publicly traded company.
As a fun aside, the most watched segment of the Attitude Era - Undertaker vs. 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin on the 28 June 1999 episode of Raw - was watched by nearly 11 million people. For comparison, last week's Raw averaged 1.82 million viewers across its three hour.