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Lol, WWE is fine. Netflix just put out a statement saying they are looking to expand WWE programming and/or monetize it more thoroughly. Was the 2.6 million number viewers or homes? If it’s homes, then you have basically the same viewership as USA Network, which is what you would have expected, with 50% or so of the audience being international. They’re not all watching live because the world doesn’t run on US time.
The Netflix deal is a global deal. It’s about carrying WWE in ALL their international markets. They’ve got the backlog and contempory major events (outside Saturday Night’s Main Event). The NBC Universal, CW Network, Tubi and YouTube deals are about getting WWE content out there to people without Netflix. You also have social media and their celebrity tie-ins/special appearances for that.
Do US fans realize that in, say, Canada, Netflix doesn’t only carry Raw, but SmackDown, NXT, WrestleMania, Money in the Bank, SummerSlam and every WWE PPV ever? It sometimes gets lost in the sauce when Meltzer marks freak out because Raw isn’t getting 10 million viewers live for Raw every week.
You’ve then also got Netflix’s business model, which is subscription-based. While it would be groovy if WWE fans watched every second of every Raw ever, they really only need them to pay for the service. If subscribers are being linked to WWE interest then it doesn’t really matter. Signing up to Netflix is like a gym membership in many respects — they don’t expect every member of the gym to use it every day or go to every class.
WWE are so confident in their deals that they are using the time to promote their auxiliary and even independtly operated adjacent programming. AAA has been a focus on Raw, SmackDown and NXT lately. This week’s NXT was basically an infomercial for TNA Against All Odds.
The doom and gloom doesn’t track. It’s too old school to be reacting week-to-week with a US-only focus.
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