• by Wayne Friedman , October 30, 2020

Although WWE’s live events remain curtailed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, revenue from its TV shows and its streaming platform media businesses continues to be higher.

Overall third-quarter revenue grew 19% to $221.6 million due to more content license program deals and streaming network gains.

Revenues from its live events sank to $700,000 from $23.2 million in the third quarter of 2019. WWE had 74 events in the third quarter of 2019 -- and none in the third quarter this year.

Breaking down its media revenue, content rights fees for its TV programming -- primarily its big “Raw” and “Smackdown” TV series -- rose $132.4 million.

Its streaming platform, WWE Network’s subscription revenue, including pay-per-view, inched up $47.8 million from $44.2 million. Average paid subscribers grew 6% to 1.6 million.

Advertising and sponsorship revenue across all WWE platforms rose 21% to $18.1 million.

Digital video views for WWE’s content grew 3% 9.2 billion, with 3% more hours consumed at 342 million -- an increase of 3%, across digital and social media platforms.

WWE’s consumer products, including eCommerce revenue, was up 17% to $19.9 million.

Sales through eCommerce platforms were up 60% was $9.1 million -- offsetting the loss of merchandise that would have been sold at its live events.

As with many companies, WWE continues to not offer guidance on future financial performance due to the ongoing uncertainty arising from the pandemic.