WWE Network Hits 1 Million Subscribers

World Wrestling Entertainment announced today that they have hit 1 million subscribers for WWE Network. The Network launched 11 months ago. The first paragraph in the press release explained how they got there: "WWE today announced that WWE Network has surpassed 1 million subscribers just 11 months after launch, making it the fastest-growing digital subscription service. These results represent a 37 percent increase (24 percent domestically) in subscribers since last reported at the end of third quarter 2014, driven primarily by a successful free November promotion, the launch of the service in the UK and significant additions for the Royal Rumble pay-per-view event." WWE Chairman & CEO Vince McMahon is thrilled with the news: "We€™re thrilled that we€™ve surpassed the 1 million subscriber milestone less than a year after launching WWE Network and in advance of WrestleMania, our biggest event of the year on March 29. We remain focused on delivering an outstanding value proposition for ours fans by adding new content and new features in the coming year." In the press release, they touted WWE Network's "one-of-a-kind programming also includes all 12 WWE pay-per-view events LIVE at no additional charge plus groundbreaking original series, reality shows, documentaries, classic matches, and exclusive coverage of special events." During the last WWE conference call on October 30, 2014 there were 731,000 paid WWE Network subscribers. A lot has changed since then. The last three months were great for WWE Network. As mentioned above, they offered a free month to new subscribers in November and perhaps some of those people ended up signing up. Also of significance is that WWE finally launched WWE Network in the United Kingdom and Ireland this month. They likely got a good number of subscribers from that because it's their second biggest market. It also helped that WWE just had the Royal Rumble PPV, which is the second biggest PPV of the year. After the Royal Rumble a lot of fans were angry with some of the results and the #CancelWWENetwork phrase was trending on Twitter for a full day after the show, but these numbers were likely taken from before the Rumble PPV. Did a significant percentage of fans unsubscribe due to anger from the Royal Rumble? We won't know for a while. They noted that fourth quarter and year-end WWE Network numbers will be reported in the normal course as a part of our earnings release on February 12. During that, they're probably going to use this 1 million number and push it heavily.