Additional notes from WWE’s second quarter results that were released last week. More detailed breakdowns can be found at corporate.wwe.com or by clicking here.
– While no number is quite official yet, early trending is that the Money in the Bank PPV last month will be WWE’s most successful “B” PPV event since the Elimination Chamber event in February.
– Television is already replacing PPV as a more profitable area at a rapid pace because of the combo of rights fees based contract (not performance) and WWE lowering expenses in producing shows. Television profits were up 25% from last year, while television rights fees were $30.8 million (up from $28.3 million last year and $29.4 million in the last quarter). One big change was WWE landing the Superstars show on WGN which pays them roughly $92,000 per week or $4.8 million per year. Overall, television rights fees in North America increased to $19.6 million (up from $18.4 million last year), while international revenue increased to $11.2 million (up from $9.9 million last year).
– WWE currently spends an average of $692,000 per television taping.
– Television advertising fell to $1.5 million (down slightly from last year’s $1.7 million figure). Most of the revenue came from overseas since WWE doesn’t get rights to commercials anymore in the U.S. WWE Classics On Demand fell to $1.2 million (down from $1.5 million last year) due to a 20% drop in subscriptions. That was a surprise to some given that more cable systems carry the service now more than ever before.
– Home Video sales were up to $11.5 million (up from last year’s $8.6 million).
– Licensing revenue dropped to $8.7 million (down from $9.0 million last year). The new partnership with Mattel is expected to increase revenue. Smackdown vs. Raw 2010 shipped 370,000 units in the quarter, down 20% from 465,000 last year.
– Magazine revenue dropped to $2.5 million (down from $3.0 million last year). Year-to-year actual sales for the magazine are down 32% overall. So for the first time ever, the magazine division lost money going $100,000 in the red for the quarter.
– Internet revenue was down to $5.4 million (a drop from $7.9 million last year), a 32% drop overall. They did cut spending on the internet from $4.5 million to $3.4 million.