Last week the WWE announced its financial results for the first quarter of 2016. The company increased its revenue by 13% on a pro-forma basis to $171.1 from $151.3 million in the prior year quarter.
The WWE Network averaged 1.29 million paid subscribers over the first quarter 2016 which is a 39% increase from the first quarter in 2015. Per the WWE press release, it reached 1.47 million total subscribers at the end of the quarter. It also states that the Network reached a record 1.82 million total subscribers immediately following Wrestlemania.
For the first time since the inception of the network, the WWE allowed consumers to potentially watch Wrestlemania (the company’s biggest event of the year) for free if they utilized the network’s #FreeWrestlemania promotion. According to PW Torch, there were 112,000 trial subscriptions pre-Wrestlemania and 370,000 post-Wrestlemania. There were 355,000 total additions over the weekend of Wrestlemania (March 31-April 4).
The total paid subscribers were 1.357 million with 1.027 domestic and 330,000 international. The company projects approximately 1.5 million paid subscribers in the second quarter of 2016.
Net income rose to $13.9 million from $9.8 million a year ago.
Notably, the revenue for live events decreased 36% to $25.3 million although this number excludes the timing of Wrestlemania which occurred in the second quarter.
Payout Perspective:
From just an outsider viewpoint, it appears that the WWE stock is moving along well and its Network, which is the most interesting thing, is still showing signs of growth. There might be a concern regarding the pro-forma reporting (excluding items such as restructuring charges or executive-based compensation) as it sometimes distracts investors from GAAP reporting as told by the Wall Street Journal. While the concern of churn is always on everyone’s mind, the incremental growth should appease investors.
Fake sport
Also insecure with WWE’s success, eh?
Hang in there, boxing fans.