A discussion about ESPN’s $1.6 billion deal for domestic streaming rights to WWE premium live events on a recent Wrestling Observer Radio got picked up by a few media outlets outside the pro wrestling bubble, and led to the Disney-owned sports brand issuing a statement refuting the notion their early returns don’t make that five-year contract don’t look like a wise investment.
The analytics firm Antenna recently reported that ESPN’s new streaming platform & subscription service had 2.1 million new users
sign-up during the first 30 days after its Aug. 21 launch. That figure doesn’t include accounts paid for via a cable bundle, and bring in $29.99 per month or $299.99 per year to ESPN, or approximately $630 million in annual revenue. A source of The Observer’s Dave Meltzer attributed 100,000-125,000 of those sign-ups to WWE’s first PLE on ESPN, WrestlePalooza. That would be somewhere in the range of $30-$37.5 million per year for ESPN, and Meltzer uses $35 million for his calculations, saying:
“If every month ends up kind of like this one… it’s worth $35 million a year. Now, they’re spending $325 million a year for $35 million a year of revenue coming from having these WWE events. Which is a very bad number.”
While some in the wrestling world have a problem with Meltzer (especially the online contingent, where some are legitimate and based on Meltzer’s track record and biases, and others come from differences of opinion, emotion, or are made in bad faith), outside it he’s a generally respected figure, and for many is their go-to for pro wrestling information and insight. And his analysis of a huge business play from ESPN in the crucial steaming space started to get picked up by a few outlets outside of the wrestling bubble.
That was apparently enough to get an ESPN source to give freelance combat sports journalist Steven Muehlhausen a statement on it:
“Things are going well and we have started strong. We don’t provide the viewership specifics, but things have been going well.”
Of course, ESPN isn’t going to throw their billion dollar partner under the bus two events into a multi-year deal. And no streaming service’s business plan predicts it will make money out of the gate; media giants are still trying to plant their flag in that world in an attempt to ensure they get a cut of the money they’re sure these services will make it the future. Or as Meltzer explained it on WOR:
“That’s why these companies are losing lots of money on this type of stuff — with the idea that down the road, when we get 50 million subscribers paying 30 bucks, we’ll be able to afford all this.”
Stay tuned.
