Welcome back to another edition of The Wrestling Post. This time around we take at the WWE Network offering another free month and the uncertainty of the status of TNA Wrestling.
WWE offers another free month on its Network
With the success of recruiting and retaining more network subscribers through its “free” network months, the WWE has added another free month of June for non-subscribers. It just came off a “free” month of May which culminated in a special live show.
Payout Take: There is no initial reason given for the second consecutive month of the “free” Network offer. We can’t read into anything but from the past indicators, the WWE has been able to collect a fair number of new paid subscribers from its free promotion. Thus, when people sign up for the free month, they tend to stay on and pay the following month instead of cancelling after the free month is up. The one question is whether the “free” month will be a mainstay for the network. It appears that the this strategy is the “go to” move to boost subscribers. We shall see if this means another improvement with its overall subscription numbers when it makes another announcement after the end of the second quarter.
Ring of Honor now on Destination America; TNA status in jeopardy
In what was a newsworthy week last week for the Discovery Network’s offshoot, Destination America, it was announced that wrestling promotion Ring of Honor will air on the network starting Wednesday, June 3rd. The interesting part about this situation is that the ROH announcement came after news that Destination America would not renew TNA Wrestling next year. The Wrestling Observer first reported the news that TNA Wrestling would be not renewed as Dave Meltzer obtained an internal memo from Destination America indicating that the promotion would not be renewed. TNA Wrestling is being moved from Friday to Wednesday and will now serve as the lead-in for ROH. While there was the possibility that Destination America could have changed its mind if TNA ratings skyrocketed on Wednesday nights, the ROH announcement makes it highly unlikely TNA will be back on Destination America once its contract ends this year. The station had an “out clause” at the end of the current TV season according to The Wrestling Observer.
Ring of Honor programming is currently available regionally via the Sinclair Broadcast Group. The Destination America deal is great for the promotion since it gives them national exposure and taps into markets that it could not reach with Sinclair. According to The Wrestling Observer, the deal with ROH will only go through December 2, 2015 so we may see more movement from Destination America this year.
Payout Take: Regardless of the semantics (cancelled vs. not renewed), Destination America made the decision that the production costs of carrying TNA Wrestling outweighed the ratings (and ad revenue) it received from the program. Ring of Honor is a cheaper alternative for Destination America since it will not be paying for production costs for ROH. Wednesday will be filled with wrestling as it joins Lucha Underground and NXT with live wrestling that night.
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