Quote:
Originally Posted by xrodmuc316
I know turning a profit doesn't seem to be critical to AEW, but primetime ad rates are much more than middle of the day rates. Not sure why Tony is hyped about this.
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Sucking up/spin. You roll with the hand you’re dealt. I mean, you could just keep quiet, but he’s got to push his face into everything.
Standing back and reflecting on the SmackDown replay beating Dynamite, taking out which show sucks more and all that subjective stuff — I think it does spell out an interesting story re: network television and the potential for wrestling promotions to do way more than they have elsewhere on it.
Come TV renegotiations, I think it will be interesting to see where Raw and SmackDown end up, but also whether AEW makes a play for network, and whether cable breaks bank to secure these shows that have potentially much larger audiences.
Taking Raw being awful out of the equation, that it does so well on cable is actually pretty incredible, when you really think about it. If it went to FOX or NBC, it would probably see a pretty sizeable increase in audience. Now, they do have an incumbent one, but I can see other wrestling promotions making real plays to point out that gulf between what Dynamite does on a Saturday against a SmackDown replay, and trying to use that argue their own deals without the capital that Tony Khan had to sign stars and the like.
I don’t know if networks will go for it, or if it’s even true, but there is a dollars and sense story here.
Ultimately, the future is in streaming. That changes the whole game. Then it becomes who can generate content to keep subscriptions viable and possibly expand OTT services into new countries or make them more viable for a sale. But cable and network wanting to remain competitive and look for content means that companies can make a killing off playing the ratings game for a little while longer. Networks might see the value in live entertainment being something they can milk and gain larger audiences than cable can allow, and cable networks might pay a hefty premium to keep or obtain something that could be way more popular on network.
Ultimately, I think this could lead to other wrestling promotions really looking to secure network deals, as unlikely as they may seem, because that could cast a much wider net almost instantly, which can boost all other business metrics — attendance, merchandising, PPV, etc.
For example: ROH could use a network broadcasting deal to really bolster their popularity and their syndication purpose. MLW didn’t exactly pop on Vice, but if they could get a deal with CBS, they could become #2 in sheer popularity almost overnight. In theory.
Impact are breaking off their deal with AEW. Mark Cuban has a lot of money. Whether he starts another thing or tries to get Impact onto network so that AXS can benefit with popularity is an outside possibility.
The true story here, in my opinion, is just how unremarkable cable ratings are compared to network, and how a SmackDown replay can get 550k people over two hours with no original content.
I dunno, I may just be being an optimist here. But more than even just recently I am seeing the huge gap between network television and cable. I see more good news in that than WWE simply being so much more popular than AEW.