• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

WWE Network |OT| $9.99 PPVs, that's gonna put some butts in the seats

Hasney

Member
bskyb are paying WWE 3x what they were paying for exclusive rights to WWE content in the UK before they signed the new deal in Jan 2014. That includes Raw, Smackdown, Main Event, Slam City, etc. and all the 12 major PPVs going to Sky Box Office.

This deal covered broadcasting digitally and on-demand.

Then 11 months later WWE want to release an app in the UK that undercuts that deal?

Sky were always said to be involved in the Network. I think this is just a better deal for them.
 
If Sky were always involved I can imagine they thought it would be as an over the top service ala Canada with the app pushed through the Sky Box (probably as an extra premium ondemand section). I mean the current way with the app Sky aren't going to get any of the money.
 

Ilive1up

Member
lmao so rusev won the us title only on the wwe network as a marketing ploy for you to get the network.

how obvious and lame.
 

Hasney

Member
If Sky were always involved I can imagine they thought it would be as an over the top service ala Canada with the app pushed through the Sky Box (probably as an extra premium ondemand section). I mean the current way with the app Sky aren't going to get any of the money.

Since they have a lot of infrastructure, I assumed that it either was going to be the botched Canada version, or they were going to act like MLB in delivering the network for WWE.

Either way, sounds like we'll never find out and get some gimped channel that's not even as good as The Wrestling Channel when that existed.

Admittedly without that Jack Evans promo on loop.... And you KNOW this.
 

iMax

Member
Then why announce the network in the UK at all? They know what contract they signed, so they know what they could and could not offer here in the UK.

All they seem to have accomplished is to piss off their second largest fanbase and second largest media partner. What a complete shambles.

Leverage.
 

strobogo

Banned
lmao so rusev won the us title only on the wwe network as a marketing ploy for you to get the network.

how obvious and lame.

Disagree. Exclusive matches is something they should have been doing from the start. But not when both guys have already wrestled and half the crowd has left because they've been there for close to 4 hours already and need to get their kids in bed because they have school in the morning.
 
D

Deleted member 47027

Unconfirmed Member
Disagree. Exclusive matches is something they should have been doing from the start. But not when both guys have already wrestled and half the crowd has left because they've been there for close to 4 hours already and need to get their kids in bed because they have school in the morning.

I agree as well they need to bust their asses with this and it's a smart move. Also making the title change actually happen was important as well. I'm ok with this.
 

Zach

Member
I agree as well they need to bust their asses with this and it's a smart move. Also making the title change actually happen was important as well. I'm ok with this.

Hey, I didn't know this was happening. That's cool. I could see tuning in on the Network after RAW for the REAL -- WOOOOO! -- main event.
 

iMax

Member
Shit just got interesting. Sky just issued a statement. The delay has nothing to do with them.

Sky Spokesperson said:
The delay on the WWE Network is in no way related to Sky. As previously advised, this is an independent service which Sky will not be providing.

In line with Meltzer's comments, can we assume then that maybe WWE is shopping the service around with other providers? Maybe BT?

Source
 

Mindwipe

Member
Shit just got interesting. Sky just issued a statement. The delay has nothing to do with them.



In line with Meltzer's comments, can we assume then that maybe WWE is shopping the service around with other providers? Maybe BT?

Source

Still putting my money on them not having obtained any music licences, since they would have been able to rely on Sky's previously which obviously won't cover this service.
 

atomsk

Party Pooper
Shit just got interesting. Sky just issued a statement. The delay has nothing to do with them.

In line with Meltzer's comments, can we assume then that maybe WWE is shopping the service around with other providers? Maybe BT?

Source

I predict the Russo double-swerve, where it turns out to be Sky all along.

SKY SPORTS WAS DRIVING THE WHITE HUMMER
 

Marvel

could never
Shit just got interesting. Sky just issued a statement. The delay has nothing to do with them.



In line with Meltzer's comments, can we assume then that maybe WWE is shopping the service around with other providers? Maybe BT?

Source
Interesting.
 

Mindwipe

Member
Don't they have all those locked up anyway?

You can't buy them internationally. You have to obtain them country by country for licences that are handled collectively, like the performance rights (by PRS in the UK) and the phonographic rights (PPL). The labels don't provide those rights when they licence usage.

Sky pay literally tens of millions, possibly hundreds, to cover their channels where WWE was previously shown. But a separate online subscription service wouldn't be covered. It would need new licences. Sure, anyone half capable would have known that and sorted the licences long ago, but "half capable" are the operative words in that sentence.
 

iMax

Member
You can't buy them internationally. You have to obtain them country by country for licences that are handled collectively, like the performance rights (by PRS in the UK) and the phonographic rights (PPL). The labels don't provide those rights when they licence usage.

Sky pay literally tens of millions, possibly hundreds, to cover their channels where WWE was previously shown. But a separate online subscription service wouldn't be covered. It would need new licences. Sure, anyone half capable would have known that and sorted the licences long ago, but "half capable" are the operative words in that sentence.

In that case, I wonder if Sky actually pulled out on the deal and WWE is frantically looking for another partner to launch the Network with.
 

Anth0ny

Member
Disagree. Exclusive matches is something they should have been doing from the start. But not when both guys have already wrestled and half the crowd has left because they've been there for close to 4 hours already and need to get their kids in bed because they have school in the morning.

Yup. The third hour of Raw almost always has the lowest rating, probably for this reason.

what's the solution, though? Encourage people to watch a big match on the network before Raw starts? I don't know how well that works.
 

iMax

Member
Yup. The third hour of Raw almost always has the lowest rating, probably for this reason.

what's the solution, though? Encourage people to watch a big match on the network before Raw starts? I don't know how well that works.

Put the main event on the Network and hype it throughout the main show?
 

strobogo

Banned
Fuck, I forgot they have a network exclusive show in Main Event. Nothing important seems to happen on it, though. A title change or big angle being on it once in a while would help, but at the same time, it seems pointless because 2 1/2 times the amount of people watch Smackdown, and they don't even do important shit on that.
 

Fox318

Member
Fuck, I forgot they have a network exclusive show in Main Event. Nothing important seems to happen on it, though. A title change or big angle being on it once in a while would help, but at the same time, it seems pointless because 2 1/2 times the amount of people watch Smackdown, and they don't even do important shit on that.

But then they kinda fuck over the crowd there for smackdown.

They would be better off broadcasting house shows with 3 camera's and doing something interesting with younger guys.

They kinda use main event as promo space for midcard guys.
 

Zach

Member
Fuck, I forgot they have a network exclusive show in Main Event. Nothing important seems to happen on it, though. A title change or big angle being on it once in a while would help, but at the same time, it seems pointless because 2 1/2 times the amount of people watch Smackdown, and they don't even do important shit on that.

But the goal is to change that, right? They want to lure people into subscribing to the Network, so why not go crazy on Network shows? Bring back jobber matches on TV and increase the meaningful matches exclusive to the Network and they should see some sort of impact, yeah?
 

strobogo

Banned
But the goal is to change that, right? They want to lure people into subscribing to the Network, so why not go crazy on Network shows? Bring back jobber matches on TV and increase the meaningful matches exclusive to the Network and they should see some sort of impact, yeah?

For sure but the way it is, I can understand why it is in limbo. You don't want to put too much important stuff on the show that a max of about 800K people will see, but you can't raise that number unless you put more important stuff on it. I'd like to know how many people actually watch Superstars.
 
Not enough WCW on the Monday Night Wars episodes. Everything is just LOL WWE won. So much betterz. Do we get an episode dedicated to Sting? The Flock? DDP? Booker?
 

RP912

Banned
Not enough WCW on the Monday Night Wars episodes. Everything is just LOL WWE won. So much betterz. Do we get an episode dedicated to Sting? The Flock? DDP? Booker?



Ofcourse...it's friggin WWE propaganda.

For a company that has a huge disdain for a dead rival company...they sure rely on the ashes for them subs (nitro, wcw ppvs, clash of the champions, etc)

but let's keep pretending WCW was shit when the company damn near had Vince working at target.
 
You know what I'd fucking love to see on the Network? Pick a random WCW PPV or Nitro and sit Vince down in a room with a mic and just let him ramble about whatever he sees.
 

Anth0ny

Member
You know what I'd fucking love to see on the Network? Pick a random PPVand sit ANYONE down in a room with a mic and just let him ramble about whatever he sees.

fixed

why don't they do commentary over old matches?

why don't they do reviews of old shows?

it's so cheap and easy
 

Petrie

Banned
Doing my free trial of the Network right now.

All the years I care about from my childhood are horribly represented. I got into WWE right around '99 until 2002. I enjoy all the other stuff, but these years are what I want to relive, and they seem barren.

What gives?
 
Doing my free trial of the Network right now.

All the years I care about from my childhood are horribly represented. I got into WWE right around '99 until 2002. I enjoy all the other stuff, but these years are what I want to relive, and they seem barren.

What gives?
Welcome to the WWE Network. No one knows. The assumption is they're trickling out the good parts people would actually want to see. Which makes them dumb assholes, really. Why give out a free month with only a few of the Raws and Nitros people want to see?
 

hamchan

Member
Welcome to the WWE Network. No one knows. The assumption is they're trickling out the good parts people would actually want to see. Which makes them dumb assholes, really. Why give out a free month with only a few of the Raws and Nitros people want to see?

Yep. I think I'm gonna unsub until they actually add all the old RAWs back in. I want to see some Attitude era RAWs.
 
They STILL haven't started uploading ECW back. They just randomly stopped uploading ECW at May 2, 1995 a few months ago. What the fuck.

It's been almost 9 months now. How the shit does everything not have bookmarks at this point?

They need to fix some of their inconsistencies. I was watching ECW November to Remember 1997 and they still had the "WWF" mentions edited. It's "WW_" all over the entire Dreamer/RVD flag match. Why edit this bullshit on an ECW PPV? There's still some random crap they are obviously still using the WWE 24/7 versions for that have all "WWF" mentions edited out. Enough already.

WWF One Night Only 1997 is STILL the gimped home video version that has Bret Hart vs. The Undertaker edited off, even though it's in the description for the show.

The pipeline of content to the network is a fucking mess.
 

Petrie

Banned
Welcome to the WWE Network. No one knows. The assumption is they're trickling out the good parts people would actually want to see. Which makes them dumb assholes, really. Why give out a free month with only a few of the Raws and Nitros people want to see?

Yeah if I can't watch all the old Hardy Boyz and Edge and Christian stuff, plus Kurt Angle and the like, then what the hell good is the thing?

I definitely won't be going beyond November if this is what's on offer.

*edit*

No Chromecast support either? dafuq Vince?
 

iMax

Member
Apparently he apologised and mentioned "POTENTIAL PARTNERS"

http://www.prowrestling.net/article...etwork-delay-in-the-UK-video-disappears-39622

If they partner with anyone for some crappy tv channel like rogers has I'm out.

Oh for fuck's sake. The way he's phrased that basically validates my suspicion that Sky had nothing to do with this delay (which we knew already), he's been toying with them, and they've stepped in at the last minute offering another deal "he just couldn't turn down".
 

The guy they took that from has posted an update

Also, there used to be an image on that post, that they had to take down somewhat amusingly:

DJG2aTh.png
 
Top Bottom