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Mike Johnson: You mentioned the delayed viewing. One of the things that happens [the day after wrestling airs] is the rush to find out that Nielsen audience number. Obviously you guys get what they call the +3s and the +7s and the delayed viewing numbers that we aren't privy too. Everyone looks at the numbers and I think from a wrestling fans' perspective, there is still that furor to still look at these numbers because during the Monday Night War era, TNT and the USA Network with WWF and WCW, were neck and neck and at each others' throats trying to get the better number, so there's this pre-determined and pre-conditioned notion, even with me, when I look at wrestling and I look at the trends, I look to see what the audience numbers are. You guy are privy to numbers that the average person, even someone like myself who researches these numbers, can't get their hands on. I know you can't give away too much in the way of sensitive information but talk about the final viewing numbers vs. the initial viewing numbers for Impact and maybe give fans an idea of what the audience is, so they see a number that says 280,000 people and say, "oh, nobody's watching Impact."
Bradley Schwartz: Yeah, it's, again, I love going on social media on Wednesday mornings and looking to see how many people have posted the ratings for Impact Wrestling the night before. Literally, there's no other show on our network that people would do that for. It's awesome to see, but again, you are pointing back to those old days of ratings. It's just overnight ratings don't matter anymore. I think and you can go look online, I think FOX said in a big internal memo that they were going to stop releasing overnight numbers to their internal staff, that they were meaningless. There were a lot of cable networks out there that have proclaimed over the last year that they will never write a press release or brag about overnight numbers ever again because they are meaningless and one of my favorite quotes is the Head of Research at CBS and he said, 'Overnight numbers are like calling a baseball game after the fourth inning. There's still a lot more to play. That's not where the game ends.' I can absolutely 100% truthful and 100% honest without any spin - every single episode of Impact Wrestling - with delayed viewing and Video on Demand added in, has been 400-500,000 thousand viewers with actually the peak, I think the highest one, was 520,000 viewers. I think that was our peak so far and it's only been five months. We're still in the early days and I think that's only after seven days. I don't know how you watch TV, but I know there are shows that you know, three weeks from now, I'll watch three episodes in a row On Demand or on my DVR. People are leaving consumption for when it's appropriate for them or it's convenient for them and so, even as these Upfronts come around, we have a lot of programming that we should be selling with +30s for delayed viewing, because it's a different time. So, when I look at Impact Wrestling, I see a show, and obviously it bounces up and down, but every single week would say there's around 450,000 viewers and for us, as a small, emerging, fast growing cable network, original programming doing 450,000 viewers every week, is fantastic.
Mike Johnson: Let's talk about the content of the show in terms of guidance you like and don't like this. Has there been any guidance from POP in terms of, you want more of this, you want less of that? Obviously, in the past, SpikeTV certainly had that power over Impact in the past and it did change and shape the product You come from a background of growing up a pro wrestling fan. You like professional wrestling and obviously, it's bringing an audience to your network. I'm curious how the relationship between POP and Impact has grown in the last five months and whether POP has had any influence on the actual product because on a given week, there is an argument that can be made that that week's episode of Impact is greater than any of the programming that week presented by WWE. Not every week but there are certainly weeks where two hours of Impact is more entertaining than three hours of what WWE puts on Monday nights, it depends on the week but there are time periods where Impact doesn't get the credit for having the better show. So, I am curious from your perspective, how has the relationship grown and how have you felt from a corporate perspective about the product and whether you've helped push the product in any certain directions?
Bradley Schwartz: I have to say, one of the things that has been part of my success in my career in general is, I kind of have a philosophy of 'hire good people and then let good people go do good things.' and to that extent, Dixie and her team, they know wrestling and they know the athletes and the stars and they know how to put that together. We have had little to no impact on the creative process of what they are doing. We love what they are doing and I'm glad you said it, because I was going to say the same thing. Depending on the week, there is no better wrestling action on television than what they are putting on. The characters and the in-ring action, it's amazing. Like you said, some shows are better than others, but that's true. That's true of others. That's true of any sporting event and that's true of any television program but damn, they are doing a fantastic job. Forget about the business side. I watch every Tuesday night and I get sucked in because A - I know I am going to talk to Dixie that week and B - I'm really loving it. Whether's it's Lashley or EC3 or Galloway or the Hardys, they are amazing. We've had no impact creatively at all. We are really enjoying the relationship. We are really enjoying the content every week. I wish I could take credit for it, but I'm going to give credit where credit's due and they're putting on a great product this year.
Interview concludes on Page 3.
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