WWE Network subs up 8% YoY
July 28, 2017
By Nik Roseveare
WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) has announced its Q2 financial results. For the quarter, the company reported Net income of $5.1 million (€4.35m) compared to Net Income of $0.8 million in the prior year quarter. Operating income increased to $10.7 million from $1.5 million.
WWE Network, the company’s SVoD service, averaged more than 1.63 million average paid subscribers over the second quarter 2017, which represented an 8 per cent increase from Q2 2016.
WrestleMania, the company’s flagshup annual PPV event which took place on April 2nd, broke the attendance record for the Orlando Citrus Bowl, attracting 75,245 fans, and reached a record 1.95 million global households on WWE Network alone, making it the most-watched WrestleMania in history. WrestleMania was made available live in China for the first time on PPTV Sports via pay-per-view with a choice of Mandarin or English commentary.
During WrestleMania Week, WWE Network subscribers watched 22.5 million hours of content, averaging approximately 13 hours per subscriber. WrestleMania was the most social event in WWE history with 5.19 million interactions on Facebook and Twitter during the broadcast alone. WrestleMania accounted for nearly 30 per cent of all social TV interactions on April 2nd, surpassing the Country Music Awards (13 per cent), The Walking Dead Season Finale (10 per cent) and MLB Opening Day on ESPN (10 per cent). During WrestleMania, the Company launched its first Snapchat show yielding over 5 million unique viewers. A series of Snapchat shows, co-produced by NBCU, will start later this year.
“We are pleased with our ongoing efforts to execute our multi-platform content strategy as evidenced by the continued year-over-year growth of WWE Network, the increased production of localised programming across platforms and markets, and the attraction of new sponsors,” stated Vince McMahon, WWE Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.
George Barrios, WWE Chief Strategy & Financial Officer, added “We achieved record revenues in our Network and Live event segments, continued to grow WWE Network’s subscriber base, and generated results that were essentially in line with our guidance. As we continue to drive WWE’s digital and direct-to-consumer transformation, we remain on track to achieve our 2017 financial objectives with record revenue, record Adjusted OIBDA results, and record subscriber levels.