Last week Bloomberg TV’s show “Bloomberg Enterprise” profiled Vince McMahon and WWE. One of the more interesting quotes from McMahon was stating the difference between MMA and WWE.
Notably, McMahon stated that MMA is “sport” whereas WWE is “entertainment”. This is in line with the change in business strategy for the wrestling organization with more of a focus on entertainment as opposed to “sports entertainment” which was the moniker of the brand for years. Also, McMahon neglected purposefully failed to acknowledge that Impact Wrestling (formerly TNA Wrestling) shown on Spike TV was a competitor. He did mention Ted Turner’s run at him with WCW.
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The episode is online here. Its great insight into WWE’s business and how it sees its consumers. Its a definite departure from what you may watch on Monday or Friday night. While the WWE relies on revenue streams similar to the UFC: PPV, merchandise and live events. The report focuses on the live events as the key to WWE’s success. What’s interesting is the talk about a WWE television network on the strength of its wrestling programming and the reinvented Tough Enough. The WWE indicated the complexity of addressing the needs of the various stakeholders in putting together a network. McMahon said the network should be up by next year.
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