WWE Puts Its Shoulder Into Push for New Network
Free Preview Leads to April ‘Wrestlemania’; Still in Talks With USA , SyFy
By: R. Thomas Umstead
Multichannel News
Feb 17 2014 - 12:00am
http://www.multichannel.com/content/wwe-puts-its-shoulder-push-new-network/148312
To kick off its new over-the-top video-streaming network, WWE will offer
viewers a free week-long preview as it continues to pin down final
details for the Feb. 24 launch.
The WWE Network, airing WWE original series and more than 150 hours of
video-on-demand library content — as well as the pro wrestling outfit’s
monthly pay-per-view events — goes live at 9 a.m. on Feb. 24, said WWE
chief revenue and marketing officer Michelle Wilson. Pro-wrestling fans
can sign up for the $9.99 per month service at the WWE.com website;
subscribers will have to commit to six monthly payments at the time of
signup, network officials said.
The multimillion-dollar promotional launch of the digital WWE Network
comes as the company negotiates new carriage deals for its popular
weekly series WWE Monday Night Raw on USA Network and SmackDown on Syfy.
The WWE is currently in an exclusive negotiating period with
NBCUniversal, parent of both networks; the current carriage agreements
for the two shows expire at the end of the year.
WWE has said it doesn’t plan to move either Raw or SmackDown to its new
WWE Network, noting that the series are more valuable as marketing and
promotional tools for the new network if they continue airing on highly
distributed cable networks. USA executives declined to comment on the
matter.
Users can take the free one-week free trial of the WWE Network anytime
between its Feb. 24 launch and up to a week before its April 6
Wrestlemania XXX pay-per-view event, Wilson said. She added the free
trial will be the cornerstone message of the network’s multimillion
dollar advertising campaign, which will tap into WWE’s database of
nearly 2 million fans as well as use non- WWE media to promote the
network leading into Wrestlemania XXX.
While Wilson would not disclose specific details of the six-week
marketing plan, she said WWE would target big sports events like “March
Madness,” the NCAA college basketball tournament, as well as
entertainment shows and music media.
The company will also promote the WWE Network through its network
carriage deals with connected TV devices, including video game consoles
such as Sony’s PlayStation 3 and 4 and Microsoft’s XBOX 360; Roku boxes;
and Android and iOSbased mobile devices, Wilson said. Consumers though,
will only be able to stream WWE Network content from one device at a time.
“The network proposition not only appeals to our fans that watch our
programming week in and week out, but we know that the network appeals
to our casual fans who might not be watching every week or our lapsed
fans who have not watched over the last six months to a year or more,”
she said.
Wilson would not project how many subscribers the network expects to
attract, but said she anticipates a surge of signups at launch and a
subsequent build-up in the weeks before Wrestlemania XXX, which will be
the first PPV event to air on the network. The WWE has said it needs 1
million subscribers to offset potential PPV revenue losses.
“Our fans are used to buying WWE PPV events the day of the event, so I
think for us we will have a better indication of where we’re at after
Wrestlemania,” she said.
The WWE will continue to provide marketing support to distributors for
its PPV events despite also offering those events on the WWE Network.
“We will continue to market the PPV events the way we have in the past,”
she said. “For us it’s all about our fans having a choice, so they can
watch Wrestlemania live on PPV or live on the WWE Network.”
In Demand will continue to offer the WWE PPV events in the short term,
according to a company executive. “While we are maintaining the status
quo, we will also be evaluating our options going forward,” the
executive added.
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