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COULD WWE BENEFIT FROM ANOTHER STREAMING PARTNERSHIP?

The release of the WWE Network has been very successful as it brings all of the wrestling content under one roof and allows fans an easier way to access the content they want – and although the platform was built by BAMTech, known for some of the biggest streaming platforms in the world, when looking back at comments around the streaming platform there are some clear issues that it has faced since severing times with the developer. This isn’t a unique problem, many streaming services that operate in a more independent way eventually face the same issues as it can be difficult to deliver the quality and service when the service is busy, and difficult to identify the problems when the service is slower.

(Image from tvweb.com)

There has been a surge of new fans for WWE over the past few years – much of this has to do with the growing popularity of combat sports through the likes of the UFC and the big names that have made the transition from one sport to the other – big names like Brock Lesnar having been such a huge part of the UFC’s Heavyweight division, and others like Ronda Rousey having made her move to the WWE after popularising women’s MMA had certainly helped – whilst neither athlete will likely compete in either organisation for the foreseeable future, the fans that have come with them certainly stuck around and the increasing attention has also led to the growth of supporting markets such as betting which can be found through sites like bet-michigan.com amongst a growing number of others – but these viewers will all expect a seamless viewing experience, and this is where another partnership may provide a big help.

Whilst any such move would take away some of the exclusivity offered by a dedicated platform, and also cut into the PPV model that the WWE relies on to some degree if deals weren’t offered, it does provide the platform with more stability, more flexibility, and a bigger opportunity to reach a wider audience. Platforms such as Amazon have done this recently by taking on board live sporting events  where the WWE could do something similar in a similar likeness to the UFC which had moved to ESPN. In many ways the move certainly would be difficult to justify and plenty of research would need to be done into whether or not the WWE Experience would benefit from doing so, but if issues persist in the current streaming platform and features that are considered basic must-haves continue to be missing (the option to adjust video quality was a big one!) then it may be harder to justify not looking for a partnership, and risk continued frustration with fans.

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