WWE: Wade Keller: Low Raw ratings are a bad thing. They count.

[M.C.G. 31]

There is an assertion or point of view out there growing in popularity that needs to be dispelled. It goes as follows: Cable ratings don’t matter that much to WWE.

This is not true. Not even close to true.

Wade Keller, editorOn Twitter last week, WWE employee Brian James (a/k/a Road Dogg) said ratings are an archaic measurement of how business is going and of the popularity of the current product.

Evan Bourne told Sports Illustrated:

“I understand that ratings are important. You have to realize WWE’s contract. They’re not getting paid from advertising money. USA makes that money. WWE gets paid by USA, they get paid a lot of money, and the money increases every year. Ratings aren’t the most important thing to them. And, let’s just be honest: ratings aren’t as precise as internet clicks and time spent on the website. If you look at that, WWE is crushing everyone. So I think ratings might not be the best metric with which to rate wrestling in this day and age. But it does mean they’ve got big distribution.â€

Let me at least put this out there first, because it’s probably the most important point, and if you read no further, you’ll still get 98 percent of why the above is nonsense:

This fall, a smaller percentage of people with access to cable TV on Monday nights in 18 years are choosing to watch Raw live, and the decline since the peak of the Monday Night War has taken a sharp nosedive over the last year compared to any year-to-year period in many years.

Full article: http://www.pwtorch.com/site/2015/12/05/keller-low-raw-ratings-are-a-bad-thing-they-count/

Hopefully people can stop pretending that WWE still rakes in a **** load of money despite low ratings.

Their TV contracts are determined by their ratings. The lower their ratings, the less money they're going to get and their contract for Monday Night Raw is up for renewal in 2016. They already set expectations high during their last round of negotiations and when the $$ was less than expected, their stock took a hit. It's about to be a worse TV deal for them if the ratings don't turn around, and with 40-percent of WWE's revenue coming from TV deals, that's a big deal. That's the largest part of their revenue stream right now, as Keller indicates in his article.

TV isn’t just one of the Big Three revenue generators, it’s the most important of the Big Three because (a) it’s the biggest; and (b) it’s what drives the other two. More specifically, TV rights fees equal 40 percent of WWE revenue, Network subs total 25 percent, and house show tickets sales and venue merchandise sales equals 18 percent of revenue. So low ratings means WWE is going to have to brace for a huge drop in TV rights fees next time they negotiate a contract, and in the mean time, fewer people are being reached as potential Network and house show customers.

Click to read more...

 

[Emperoreddy]

Exactly. This is how TV works, and NBCUniversal (who owns USA) is in the business of making money, and networks will often go the cheaper route when it comes to what programming they put on.

You can only convince a network things will turn around for so long before they start to put the squeeze on with a contract that is more favorable to them, or they just look for a cheaper option to fill that time slot.

And we can't happen because many of us watched a top wrestling company collapse.

I don't think we will see real grumblings until after football season, and when the road to WM is in full swing. If WWE can't pull the ratings back during that time, then **** is really going to start hitting the fan.

 

[M.C.G. 31]

The thing is WWE couldn't even hit 3.0 during the Road to Wrestlemania this year. They were routinely in the 2.7-2.9 range. This year's Road to Wrestlemania, which looks like it'll feature a weak lineup, especially with the injuries to Orton, Rollins and Cesaro, could just sit in the 2.4 - 2.6 range. I wouldn't hold my breath on WWE's numbers popping big for the Road to Wrestlemania. I'm more likely to watch basketball with the way the product is.

 

[George Binks]

Sounds like they may be forced to give us something good soon

 

[RockLobster]

The thing is WWE couldn't even hit 3.0 during the Road to Wrestlemania this year. They were routinely in the 2.7-2.9 range. This year's Road to Wrestlemania, which looks like it'll feature a weak lineup, especially with the injuries to Orton, Rollins and Cesaro, could just sit in the 2.4 - 2.6 range. I wouldn't hold my breath on WWE's numbers popping big for the Road to Wrestlemania. I'm more likely to watch basketball with the way the product is.

You forgot to mention that DB won't likely be there...since they don't want to use one of the genuine needle-movers they have (because they know that the fans will want him in the main event picture, rather than Reigns). It'll be just (another) instance of the WWE sabotaging themselves.

 

[ColePens]

Sounds like they may be forced to give us something good soon

Why don't they just start by giving us something good....

 

[ColePens]

Rock!obster ... It does amaze me that they go out of their way to sabotage themselves. Why is there such a war between fans and product right now? You don't have to let the fans dictate the product, but it seems to me they make decisions just to play the power game against the fans. It's ridiculous.

I've never in my life seen a show, movie, product, anything be at war with their own consumers like what we have going on here. It's so weird.

 

[RockLobster]

Rock!obster ... It does amaze me that they go out of their way to sabotage themselves. Why is there such a war between fans and product right now? You don't have to let the fans dictate the product, but it seems to me they make decisions just to play the power game against the fans. It's ridiculous.

I've never in my life seen a show, movie, product, anything be at war with their own consumers like what we have going on here. It's so weird.

I truly believe it's out of spite now. They want so badly for the crowd to cheer for Reigns, but I just don't think it's going to happen...yet. It CAN, but they've made all the wrong moves so far. Which is funny, because with The Rock, they made the right ones (after shelving the Blue Chipper gimmick).

Come hell or high water, Reigns will be in the spot they envision him in. We'll just have to see how low the numbers go.

 

[Emperoreddy]

The thing is WWE couldn't even hit 3.0 during the Road to Wrestlemania this year. They were routinely in the 2.7-2.9 range. This year's Road to Wrestlemania, which looks like it'll feature a weak lineup, especially with the injuries to Orton, Rollins and Cesaro, could just sit in the 2.4 - 2.6 range. I wouldn't hold my breath on WWE's numbers popping big for the Road to Wrestlemania. I'm more likely to watch basketball with the way the product is.

And that is where you see things hit the fan, and we might start hearing real grumblings from USA. If they can't get the needle to start to stabilize or move the other way during their big time, how are they ever going to fix it?

 

[M.C.G. 31]

And that is where you see things hit the fan, and we might start hearing real grumblings from USA. If they can't get the needle to start to stabilize or move the other way during their big time, how are they ever going to fix it?

You fix it by doing something WWE doesn't have: patience. You need to completely scrap and overhaul the formula on Raw because it's tired and repetitive. You need to put effort into building characters, even if it means taking a short-term hit for a long-term gain.

 

[Pinkfloyd]

You fix it by doing something WWE doesn't have: patience. You need to completely scrap and overhaul the formula on Raw because it's tired and repetitive. You need to put effort into building characters, even if it means taking a short-term hit for a long-term gain.

Ending their feud with the fans because of the whole DB saga would be a good start.

 

[NYGBleedBlueNYR]

The WWE has long held the belief that the hardcore fans don't matter. They book for the casual fan because the hardcore fans will always be there.

Apparently we are all that's left.

The problem is that this will probably lead to more idiocy as they try & pop ratings rather than, as previously mentioned, patiently build great stories.

I also think that these ratings might just lead to Bryan winning the rumble as Vince's Hail Mary.

 

[DoyleG]

Exactly. This is how TV works, and NBCUniversal (who owns USA) is in the business of making money, and networks will often go the cheaper route when it comes to what programming they put on.

You can only convince a network things will turn around for so long before they start to put the squeeze on with a contract that is more favorable to them, or they just look for a cheaper option to fill that time slot.

And we can't happen because many of us watched a top wrestling company collapse.

I don't think we will see real grumblings until after football season, and when the road to WM is in full swing. If WWE can't pull the ratings back during that time, then **** is really going to start hitting the fan.

Of course, NBC Universal knows that the WWE is the lowest cost programming since its the WWE that carries the cost of production on itself. This isn't the XFL.

 

[DD03]

Wonder what happens when WWE has to lower their budget..

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

Thanks tips I can't believe he gets paid to provide this "insight"

 

[OilTastic]

You fix it by doing something WWE doesn't have: patience. You need to completely scrap and overhaul the formula on Raw because it's tired and repetitive. You need to put effort into building characters, even if it means taking a short-term hit for a long-term gain.

it's tired and repetitive because Vince is still running the company and at 70, i feel he's run his course as head honcho of the WWE and should really give up the decision making to someone with some fresh ideas.

 

[OilTastic]

Wonder what happens when WWE has to lower their budget..

wrestlers get layed off....

 

[AfroThunder396]

I haven't watched since Survivor Series. I heard something about Tommy Dreamer and some kind of ethnic heel stable, neither of those have my interest.

I miss New Day but that's about it. Everyone else I care about is either injured, in NXT, or not being used.

I guess Mick Foley was complaining about something too?

 

[GarbageGoal]

They sacrificed quality for that third hour and all the $$$ that comes with it.

 

[AtlantaWhaler]

Wonder what happens when WWE has to lower their budget..

Hopefully this leads to younger, cheaper talent coming up from NXT and not paying a boatload to bring back old part-timers from 2002.

 

[Sheppy]

They need to make RAW unpredictable like it used to be.

- Occasional Title Changes on RAW. I can't remember the last time RAW had a significant title change hands. It has to be a while.

- Give us a few ladder matches/cage matches/TLC - Oh wait, we've turned half of those things into gimmick PPV's, right.

I can't remember the last time I thought to myself "Damn, I can't wait to see what happens next week" - You bring that feeling back, you'll get some viewers back. It's a fact. Each time I watch, I can guarantee the RAW will have 3/5 matches being tag matches with no storyline development, a singles match with some sort of interference by someone, and the other singles match 50/50 ending cleanly.

 

[The Gongshow]

Remember when the rumour was there would be big changes on this latest episode of RAW and they almost had Face Wyatts taking down the champ.... then they went back to regular awful RAW stuff thats been the same for years now. Nothing new, nothing fresh to keep ratings from dropping

 

[M.C.G. 31]

Remember when the rumour was there would be big changes on this latest episode of RAW and they almost had Face Wyatts taking down the champ.... then they went back to regular awful RAW stuff thats been the same for years now. Nothing new, nothing fresh to keep ratings from dropping

I hope the numbers show this today.

First hour: oh, Wyatts against the champ? Exciting, let's see how this goes...

*10 minutes later...*

Typical WWE... *switches over to something else*

 

[Sarcastic]

Remember when the rumour was there would be big changes on this latest episode of RAW and they almost had Face Wyatts taking down the champ.... then they went back to regular awful RAW stuff thats been the same for years now. Nothing new, nothing fresh to keep ratings from dropping

For the record, Dave Meltzer stated that WWE were thinking of making some changes but Meltzer wasn't sure how serious they were. Then some dirtsheets which quote Meltzer all the time ran with it as for sure WWE are making serious changes.

 

[Loosie]

For the record, Dave Meltzer stated that WWE were thinking of making some changes but Meltzer wasn't sure how serious they were. Then some dirtsheets which quote Meltzer all the time ran with it as for sure WWE are making serious changes.

Well after this weeks number they should be more serious about it.