TNA Wrestling has announced that it is restructuring its PPVs for 2013 and will only have 4 instead of 10. It will now have PPVs in January, March, June and October.
Late last year TNA had announced that it was reducing its PPVs from 12 to 10. Only a month or so later it announced it would only have 4. However, the wrestling organization announced that it would tape 3 hour specials which would be available on PPV for a reduced rate of $20 a month. This would compensate for the 3 less hours per month of content for its international distributors.
TNA will continue to air its 1 hour Video on Demand programs entitled “Unfinished Business.”
Payout Perspective:
Notably, DirecTV is not carrying TNA’s Genesis PPV on January 13th. Its not clear the reasons for the abrupt change in strategy. TNA Wrestling is still pulling ratings at an average of over 1 million viewers a week nd will be the anchor for Thursday night combat sports viewing on Spike TV. It will serve as the lead-in for Bellator. But, the move away from PPV and focusing on pre-produced content may be seen as a cost-saving measure. The new alternative, “One Night Only” 3 hour specials for a reduced rate might be attractive to the TNA fan interested in seeing more but not wanting to pay the $50 for a PPV.
The “less is more” strategy may help with overall PPV buys as the company can focus on developing its characters and storylines in leading up to the PPVs.
The UFC should have weekly fights. LIke maybe an hour slot every week with 3 fights, plus a ppv every 1-2 months. That’d be sick.
I had no idea that TNA charged $50 for their PPVs. Seems awfully steep for a second-rate pro-wrestling organization.
I’m with you on the PPV idea JUICE; at the very least, they should limit PPVs to 1 per month. Looks like they’re running two in February, so it doesn’t look like they’ll scale them back any time soon, but they really should seeing as how last year indicated that two per month is too many, ESPECIALLY factoring in the possibility (inevitability?) of injuries.