Welcome to another edition of The Wrestling Post. In this edition we write about a new PPV announced, DirecTV plays hard ball and the latest ratings from Total Divas.
Ring of Honor tries PPV Sunday June 22nd
This week Ring of Honor announced that it would be holding its first PPV ever for the company Sunday, June 22nd.
Notably, the ROH PPV is the same weekend as Glory’s first PPV and a week after TNA Wrestling’s PPV, Slammiversary. ROH had previously put on iPPVs with some noted difficulties.
The Sinclair Broadcasting-owned ROH have expanded its reach with its weekly show as more affiliates carry ROH. Of course, it’s at 1:00 am on Friday night here in Seattle so you can still DVR the show. Hopefully promotion of the PPV will attract fans to buy the PPV.
Payout Take: The PPV can be seen as ROH capitalizing on the WWE popularity and its champion – Daniel Bryan worked Ring of Honor for some time. 104,000 buys is the unofficial number of ECW’s very first PPV – Barely Legal in 1997. We shall see if ROH can do better in 2014. ROH has more financial backing and should put on more of a polished product. Obviously PPV has evolved since the late 1990s and we will see which satellite/cable companies pick up the PPV but it will be an interesting comparison.
DirecTV drops WWE PPVs
Earlier this week, DirecTV announced that it would no longer offer WWE PPVs to its subscribers per PW Torch. WWE did release a statement acknowledging the move by the satellite company. “Yes, DIRECTV has decided to stop offering our PPV’s residentially and commercially. The only other option would be to work through the local cable provider.”
DirecTV did leave an out that it may return to carrying WWE PPVs. You may recall that the Dish Network first announced that it would no longer carry the company’s PPVs since it launched its digital network. However, the distributor changed its mind and carried Wrestlemania XXX. The domestic buys for Wrestlemania XXX, the first PPV carried on the WWE Network, drew 400,000 purchases.
Payout Take: While the WWE is hoping for the success of its network, it still seeks its distributors to continue to carry its PPV. Distributors such as DTV and Dish saw this as a direct hit against its profits from the WWE PPVs. We all knew that the WWE Network would cannibalize its PPV profits but would benefit the WWE bottom line in the long run. We will see whether DTV stands it ground. It has played hard ball in the past. One need only look at the acrimonious negotiations between DTV and the Pac 12 Network and The Weather Channel to see it doesn’t back down.
Total Divas ratings
Episode 4 for the second season of Total Divas on E! scored 1.164 million viewers for a 0.5 rating among adults 18-49 according to Television By Numbers. The episode was the first in two weeks having taken off for Wrestlemania XXX Sunday.
The 1.164 million is the second-lowest rating this season for the reality show. This season’s average is at 1.26 million viewers.
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