The WWE network is home to over 5000 hours of wrestling content, both past and present. However, numerous claims of illegal streaming of their content has hindered their growth over the past three years.
“During the past year, we continued to successfully execute our content strategy, which resulted in significant operational achievements and generated record revenue” McMahon said. “The increased engagement with our brands across multiple platforms provides a foundation for achieving our 2017 and long-term financial objectives.”
While these reports portray the successful year that the WWE had, doesn’t explain the steady decline in television ratings. In 2016, the average ratings for RAW and Smackdown were 2.26 million and 1.72 million viewers respectively. This is a direct correlation of fans turning their back on the product that could be perceived as lackluster of late. TWM news referred to this perception of the poor product as a cause of more illegal streaming.
“Since the introduction of the WWE Network, the rise of illegal streaming particularly for WWE events has increased,” the author stated. “Some fans are choosing to find an illegal stream ... for free. This same theory applies to weekly episodes of Raw & SmackDown.”
Fans have the unfair misconception that poor ratings are equivalent to poor show quality. However, the argument can be made that the low ratings is due to more accessibility. We live in the golden age of the internet, where everything and everyone is connected online. Furthermore, with the growing amount of opportunities for different devices that allow streaming, the television viewership will be affected by the illegal streaming. Instead of watching three hours of Raw every week, fans can save time and energy by downloading the stream and watching it at a different time.
WWE has been a global phenomenon for over 60 years. It continues to be successful through the creation of the network. The continued usage of illegal streaming has hurt the ratings for Raw and Smackdown, which diminishes the display of growth for their product. The solution for this is unclear, but until then, fans should just watch the product themselves to successfully create an opinion, instead of reading the ratings results.
Authored by Arik Armstead and Mohammed Kabir
The network currently has over 1.9 million subscribers, good enough for fifth on the global network scale. Therefore, it would be reasonable to say that since its inception in 2014, WWE viewer growth has increased exponentially. The quarterly reports of 2016 support those assertions, as WWE announced a strong fourth quarter with record revenue and internet engagements. In a 2016 interview with WWE CEO Vince McMahon by businesswire.com, he elaborated on the great year his corporation had.Tonight's #SDLive emanates from @savemartcenter in Fresno, where @DaveBautista won his FIRST #RoyalRumble in 2005! https://t.co/i6hoHIqxyK— WWE Network (@WWENetwork) May 2, 2017
“During the past year, we continued to successfully execute our content strategy, which resulted in significant operational achievements and generated record revenue” McMahon said. “The increased engagement with our brands across multiple platforms provides a foundation for achieving our 2017 and long-term financial objectives.”
While these reports portray the successful year that the WWE had, doesn’t explain the steady decline in television ratings. In 2016, the average ratings for RAW and Smackdown were 2.26 million and 1.72 million viewers respectively. This is a direct correlation of fans turning their back on the product that could be perceived as lackluster of late. TWM news referred to this perception of the poor product as a cause of more illegal streaming.
“Since the introduction of the WWE Network, the rise of illegal streaming particularly for WWE events has increased,” the author stated. “Some fans are choosing to find an illegal stream ... for free. This same theory applies to weekly episodes of Raw & SmackDown.”
Fans have the unfair misconception that poor ratings are equivalent to poor show quality. However, the argument can be made that the low ratings is due to more accessibility. We live in the golden age of the internet, where everything and everyone is connected online. Furthermore, with the growing amount of opportunities for different devices that allow streaming, the television viewership will be affected by the illegal streaming. Instead of watching three hours of Raw every week, fans can save time and energy by downloading the stream and watching it at a different time.
WWE has been a global phenomenon for over 60 years. It continues to be successful through the creation of the network. The continued usage of illegal streaming has hurt the ratings for Raw and Smackdown, which diminishes the display of growth for their product. The solution for this is unclear, but until then, fans should just watch the product themselves to successfully create an opinion, instead of reading the ratings results.
Authored by Arik Armstead and Mohammed Kabir
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