finances

Checking up on a few things as the WWE 2nd Quarter annual report comes up on Monday, also closely followed by about fifteen underinformed and underthought arguments (“OMG the McMahons make so much money!” Yea, on the company that is completely relient on them, what a shock.) They’ve got info on the confrence call (10:00 EST – I’m surprised there’s not more ‘net people without a morning job who don’t try to call and listen in) on the CorpBiz site.

I’ve added the June attendance/ratings info to the WWE Figures page (and it’s now in the /wwe/info directory.) Note that the ratings haven’t suddenly been revised up, but are now listed in Numbers Of People Who Watched (millions), which I think is a lot more useful metric to compare two shows with different availbilities. I’m always waiting for a really bored day when I have nothing but a ‘net connection to compile previous years of numbers. I expect that to happen sometime in say Janurary.

One thing I did notice was a change of format in WWE’s Key Business Drivers Report. I (and others, but mostly this was me making a big deal of nothing) noted the previous “buyrates by month” format was going to cause confusion once they started doing multiple PPVs per month. Apparently, at least someone else was worried, because they’ve now changed the format to list each PPV individually.

Good lord, Tim Cowlishaw just quoted the Black Album. I’m lost now.

It’s quite helpful in figuring out what happened when. Anyway, whoever did the new excel sheet is going to be really sad when they have to squeeze in a couple more columns for yet to be announced PPVs.

Skip Bayless “Just once, I want to be a hateable.” Does he read the W? Anyone who tries to win an discussion by saying “you know I’m right” isn’t really a person worth arguing with.

What’s even more interesting and more important is a new graph they’ve added on the next page: Reconciliation of pay per view buy rates. Not only are the changes from inital estitmate documented – Goldberg was a clear success and then a clear waste – but you can also figure out how far along they’ve gotten solid information. The varying amounts of added buys after the numbers are first announced also hurts the initial numbers credibility; the WWE still really isn’t sure how the multiple PPVs per month actually did, because some buyrates around those uncertian number have gone up 5% and some have gone up 25%. There’s enough error to totally change the impression and the effect.

FWIW, elsewhere it says they’re aiming for 5.4-5.6 buys. Should add them up and see how they’re doing, given what we know.

The WWE Overview still features a picture of Sable. Someone ought to fix that. The best part of that is how they delinate between the two brands:

RAW: Provocative, Edgier
SmackDown!: Athletic, Irreverent

I’m sure that’s true in someone’s mind.

(do I need a seperate wrestling icon? I don’t know. This icon looks so much cooler when it’s bigger.)