{"id":2732,"date":"2014-01-16T23:51:55","date_gmt":"2014-01-17T04:51:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/crazymax.org\/newsite\/?p=2732"},"modified":"2014-01-18T01:04:40","modified_gmt":"2014-01-18T06:04:40","slug":"soapbox1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crazymax.org\/newsite\/columns\/soapbox1\/","title":{"rendered":"The Soap Box: The WWE Network vs. PPV"},"content":{"rendered":"

WWE Network vs. Pay-Per-View<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The WWE Network is the talk of the town and everyone is making their own judgment. Will this usher in a new era for wrestling and beyond or is it the next XFL? It\u2019s too early to predict the extent that such an undertaking will reach. However, it is clear that cable and satellite providers are going to take a financial loss because this network will change the landscape of Pay-Per-View in one form or another.<\/p>\n

Growing up, I hated missing Pay-Per-View events as my parents could only afford a handful a year. Today, as an adult, I\u2019m only interested in watching Summer Slam, Royal Rumble, and WrestleMania. The other nine events are nothing special and not worth the suggested retail price. A lot of fans feel this way which is why the buy rates have dropped over the years. In response to the network announcement,\u00a0DirecTV<\/i>\u00a0stated the audience for WWE events \u201chas been steadily declining, and this new low-cost competitive offering will only accelerate this trend.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

Some believe the pay-per-view event model of distributing content is out dated. I think it is simply a matter of today\u2019s WWE product being antiquated for the private telecast. The company has found their niche with the PG era and\u00a0they\u2019ve\u00a0gained a more respectable business reputation and access to new revenue streams as a result.\u00a0The\u00a0trade-off is that they\u2019re handcuffed creatively which has led to more emphasis towards television than pay-per-view.<\/p>\n

It makes sense considering millions of people watch\u00a0Raw<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0Smackdown,<\/i>\u00a0but the content that goes with a PG rating has made it so that paying for matches that air on TV\u00a0several times a year is not as appealing as it once was. Floyd Mayweather will always draw high numbers on PPV because it is the only way you can see him fight. Plus, the dynamic of Boxing doesn\u2019t change. The dynamic of WWE does and their current direction has made it so professional wrestling no longer lends itself to pay-per-view.<\/p>\n

WWE Network is a wrestling fan\u2019s dream, but there is one thing the company must do to ensure its future. They need to get WrestleMania 30 right. The monthly price tag of $9.99 along with being able to see WrestleMania 30 at no extra\u00a0cost is the reason many will pay their hard-earned money at launch. If they, even remotely, have the same difficulties as they did with last year\u2019s live stream of WrestleMania, consumer confidence in the network will be lost before it ever gets a chance to spread its wings.<\/p>\n

Pay-Per-View is the workhorse that has served Vince McMahon well so I\u2019d be hard pressed to believe that he didn\u2019t see this coming. He has scratched and clawed to make WWE an esteemed\u00a0global brand in pop culture. McMahon knows he is biting the hand that feeds him by turning the pay-per-view platform into a ridiculously exorbitant option. High risk means high reward and this is arguably the biggest risk he has ever taken with his company. If the network is successful, it changes everything. If it fails, WWE might be at the mercy of cable and satellite providers. No matter how you slice it, something tells me that February 24, 2014 will no doubt be a historic day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Atlee Greene joins the writing staff at Crazymax, with his new column “The Soap Box. This week Greene looks at the WWE Network vs. PPV<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":109,"featured_media":2844,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[71,296],"class_list":["post-2732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columns","tag-ppv","tag-wwe-netowk"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crazymax.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crazymax.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crazymax.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crazymax.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/109"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crazymax.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2732"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/crazymax.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2732\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2870,"href":"https:\/\/crazymax.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2732\/revisions\/2870"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crazymax.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crazymax.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crazymax.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crazymax.org\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}