Commentary

McMahon Says WWE Network Coming Soon, Don't Believe It

Vince McMahon continues to pump a coming WWE Network. Yet, the bet here is it just isn't going to happen - at least on any major scale. There may be an opportunity for distribution on a sports tier, where a fan can pay a premium for access a la pay per view, but not as the widely distributed cable outlet that McMahon covets.

When a company keeps mentioning something is coming in the next 12 to 18 months and the goalposts keep moving, that begins to sound as hollow as a promise that the economy is close to recovering.

In February of last year, WWE chief McMahon said he hoped the WWE Network would be rolling out in a year and a half. Now, it's 18 months later and there's nothing.

Over the weekend, the WWE reiterated its commitment to the network and said it should be coming no later than next fall. Still, McMahon, who has gotten into the ring himself many times, is nothing if not an eternal promoter.

He said "we have, I think, the most compelling start-up network" maybe ever. And that is "saying a great deal, because I understand what other networks have started out as."

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Dismissing questions about whether operators would want to carry it, McMahon said on the conference call: "We have an extraordinary leverage with all the content distributors."

So, tune in this fall for an update on a launch date, which should be moved forward to Mitt Romney's first term.

There are so many unappealing concepts for new networks floating out there -- the University of Texas's Longhorn Network is a paradigm -- but the WWE has considerable potential.

Replays of old Texas-Oklahoma games seem ho-hum - ESPN Classic, which was based around that stuff has been pushed aside by ESPN itself - but wrestling from yesteryear has the chance to grab a younger demographic advertisers want to tackle.

Teenagers and 20-somethings too young to remember would be fascinated by Andre the Giant. They would eat up replays of Hulk Hogan in his prime. They would laugh at Ric Flair's perfectly coiffed, lengthy blond hair and maybe inject his signature "Whoooo" into their lexicon.

Library content, in fact, may fuel a WWE Network more than the current goings on in the ring -- though that's doing pretty well, too. Attendance at live events in North America was down slightly in the second quarter, but WWE was able to raise prices to an average of $42.14. That would buy a pretty good seat at a baseball game not in Yankee Stadium.

NBC Universal continues to use grapplers as programming pillars, where "WWE Raw" on USA continues to be a strong draw and Syfy has "SmackDown" for two hours on Fridays.

And the NBC network will air a "WrestleMania" special in prime time Aug. 13 with two pretty big stars in "The Rock" and "Jersey Shore's "Snooki."

McMahon is right when he says the network would be a "significant" boost to WWE's bottom line. Like many networks seeking carriage, the WWE could make it easier by giving operators a stake, but the gruff, tough McMahon doesn't seem like the type willing to go that route.

He's willing to do it the hard way, but that seems daunting. Then again, if he signs "Snooki" to a long-term deal, he may have no trouble at all.

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