Recently, WWE’s First Quarter Earnings Report were released by the company. Although, WWE did financially well last year with it’s overall revenue, the first quarter showed that the company is off to a disappointing start for 2019.
According to Forbes, WWE did disappointing numbers in this first quarter as a result of a decrease in overall revenue, operating income loss and an underwhelming loss subscriber count for the WWE Network after WrestleMania 35. WWE CEO Vince McMahon made an interesting statement concerning the first quarter report.
The Chairman of WWE brought up a possible explanation for the report. He said that the, “engagement metrics over the past two quarters were impacted by Superstar absences” during WWE’s press release. WWE’ press release also gave this statement about the Q1 earnings:
“During the fourth quarter 2018 earnings call, WWE management discussed the absence of several talent and their belief that these absences had a negative impact on the Company’s engagement metrics. Management believes that these absences continued to impact engagement in the first quarter 2019 as domestic TV ratings for Raw and SmackDown declined approximately 14% and 13%, respectively, and average attendance at the Company’s live events in North America declined 11%.
“WWE Network average paid subscribers increased 2% and digital video consumption increased 23%. Looking to the future, management believes the Company’s engagement metrics will improve with the return of its talent, the emergence of new storylines and new Superstars, and as the Company launches a new season of WWE following a successful WrestleMania.”
So McMahon’s reason for this disappointing result with the Q1 earnings was the absence of big name marquee stars during this quarter as well as their 4th Quarter earnings last year. This was around the time where big name Superstars like Triple H, John Cena, Undertaker and even Roman Reigns who was absent due to his second battle with leukemia at the time.
It is very interesting to hear this statement from the CEO considering the amount of talent they have in their company. They currently have a lot more talent than ever in their company’s history.
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