— While WWE’s latest financial results that were released last week were far more positive than negative, the company’s stock dropped below $15 before recovering by the end of the week. The primary reason for this was the weaker-than-expected performance of the WWE Network which saw less a significant decrease in US subscribers from Q3 to Q4. As of 12/31, WWE has approximately 939,000 US subscribers and 277,000 non-US subscribers. It is worth noting that WWE had initially projected that their network would top 2 million US subscribers and 500,000 non-US subscribers two years into the product, so they are well off target.
— WWE’s live event business was virtually flat year-over-year, averaging approximately 6000 paid seats per event. However, overall the live event revenues improved as the average ticket price rose from just shy of $49 to over $53.
— All forms of merchandising was up from 2014, increasing from $9.58 per head to $10.54 per head in 2015.
— Survivor Series only did about 17,000 US buys while the TLC PPV did 14,000 buys, the lowest in company history. Due to the WWE Network, most PPV buys are from international markets which saw 50,000 buys for Survivor Series and 45,000 buys for TLC.
Source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter. For subscription information & prices, click here.