WWE Reveals Latest Network Subscriber Numbers In Conference Call
How much did "Free WrestleMania" help?
As has become traditional, WWE held a conference call the morning after WrestleMania to discuss quarter one earnings with stockholders. Vince McMahon was not present on the call, leaving chief revenue & marketing officer Michelle Wilson, SVP financial planning & investor relations Michael Weitz, and chief strategy and financial officer George Barrios to handle business.
As Barrios revealed on the call, the current tally for the WWE Network is 1.949 million subscribers, or about 51,000 short of the 2 million mark that the company had hoped to achieve. Of those subscribers, 1.661 million are paying customers, with the rest taking advantage of a free promotion. 1.452 million of the total subscribers (1.257 million of the paid) are based in the U.S., with the remaining 497,000 of the total (and 424,000 of the paid) located elsewhere in the world.
The current number is artificially inflated, as like last year, hundreds of thousands of fans signed up to take advantage of the free WrestleMania promotion. Many are not expected to retain their subscriptions, with Barrios predicting 1.63 million subscribers in quarter two. Still, the quarter one numbers are up 11% from last year's first quarter, when circumstances were the same.
There was no announcement made about adding independent wrestling content to the WWE Network.