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UPDATE ON WHETHER PPV DISTRIBUTORS WILL CARRY WRESTLEMANIA, WHEN THE NEW US TV DEAL WILL BE DONE, SCOOBY DOO IS GOING TO WRESTLEMANIA AND MORE - PART ONE OF TODAY'S WWE EARNINGS CONFERENCE CALL

By Dave Scherer on 2014-02-20 11:10:43

The call began with Michael Weitz, who announced that Vince McMahon and George Barrios would be addressing us today. Weitz did the basic introduction and turned the call over to Vince.

Vince said that their results were right around expectations, down but due to investment in the future (aka the Network).  He said that live events have increased 2 percent.  TV Viewership was up 17% to over 14 million viewers a week.

He said that they have new deals in the UK and Thailand and the deals are three times and seven times more than they were in the past.  He said that Total Divas has been a hit and they have high hopes for that going forward.  Vince talked about working with The Flintstones and Scooby Doo and noted Scooby Doo was going to WrestleMania.

He talked about the deals they have done with companies like Kraft.  He said that for the first time in a long time they are out in the marketplace for their US rights fees.  He said that they expect to have a deal done by the end of April, maybe a bit later.

He said that The Network starts next week.  He said that most of their partners have agreed to carry events through WrestleMania and from that point on they will decide on a case by case basis as to whether they carry WWE shows or not, obviously depending on how much the Network hurts sales of the shows.

Vince turned it over to George Barrios.

George said that the UK and Thailand deals are now their number one and three deals outside of the US.

He said that they are now engaged with discussions with companies about their TV rights now that they are outside of their exclusive window with NBCU.  He added that they are also in the same state with their deal in India.

George said that with Total Divas, their average weekly reach for their programming is 14.2 million viewers.

George then went into the numbers, which you can read elsewhere on the site.
 

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