Live & Televised Entertainment
Live events and television programming are our principal creative content and production activities. Our creative team develops compelling and complex characters and weaves them into dynamic storylines that combine physical and emotional elements. Storylines are usually played out in the ring and unfold on our weekly television shows, and culminate in our monthly pay-per-view events.
Our success is due primarily to the continuing popularity of our Superstars and Divas. We currently have 139 Superstars and Divas under exclusive contracts, ranging from multi-year guaranteed contracts with established Superstars to developmental contracts with our Superstars in training. Our Superstars and Divas are highly trained and motivated independent contractors, whose compensation is tied to the revenue that they help generate. WWE Superstars and Divas include “Monday Night Raw’s” Triple H, John Cena, Shawn Michaels, Randy Orton, Big Show,� Kelly Kelly, Melina and“Friday Night SmackDown’s” Undertaker, Batista, Edge, CM Punk, Rey Mysterio, Kane, Chris Jericho, Maria. We own the rights to substantially all of our characters and exclusively license the rights we do not own through agreements with our Superstars and Divas. We continually seek to identify, recruit and develop additional talent for our business.
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Television Programming
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Relying on our in-house production capabilities at our technologically advanced, high definition, production facility, we produce seven hours of original weekly prime time programming, 52 weeks per year. This programming is distributed domestically, internationally and via WWE.com. Our domestic programs are: “Monday Night RAW” on USA Network, Telemundo and mun2; and “A.M. RAW” on USA Network; “Friday Night SmackDown” on MyNetworkTV; “WWE NXT” on the Syfy Channel; and “WWE Superstars” on WGN America. WWE programs reach 15.8 million total viewers during the average week.
“Monday Night RAW” is a two-hour primetime program that is broadcast live on USA Network. It is among the most- watched regularly scheduled programs on primetime cable television and anchors USA, helping make it a top-rated network. As part of the agreement with USA Network’s parent company, NBC Universal, RAW also airs in replays on Telemundo, mun2 and Universal HD.
The two-hour “Friday Night SmackDown” airs on MyNetworkTV in primetime on Fridays. SmackDown is the top-rated program on Friday nights among males under 55, including the key male 12-17 and 18-34 demographics, and is the most-watched program on MyNetworkTV among all key demographics.
“WWE Superstars” is the most-watched program on WGN America among households, total viewers and all key demographics.
Each year, more than 7,500 hours of WWE’s television programming can be seen in more than 145 countries and 30 languages around the world.Our broadcast partners include: BSkyB in the UK; Sky Italia and GXT in Italy; DSF and Sky Deutschland in Germany; TVI, SIC, Sport TV and TV Cabo in Portugal; Groupe AB and Canal + in France; MTV3 in Finland; SBS in Denmark; TV4 in Sweden; Fox TV in Turkey; Extreme Sports Channel in Poland; Nova Sports in Greece; Galaxie Sport in Czech Republic & Slovakia; Sport RO in Romania; Eurosport across Europe; e.tv in South Africa; Ten Sports in India; J SPORTS, TVK, TVS, SUN-TV, FTV and MXTV in Japan; GDTV, SZTV, JSTV, SXTV, TJTV, HBTV, FJTV, HNTV and BesTV in China, TV3 and ASTRO in Malaysia; Foxtel and Channel Nine in Australia; Sky TV in New Zealand; Solar in the Philippines; Showtime, Orbit and E-Vision in the Middle East; Televisa, TV Azteca, PCTV and MVS in Mexico, Canal 9 in Argentina; and FX Channel throughout Latin America.
Pay-Per-View Programming
WWE has been the world’s pre-eminent provider of pay-per-view programming for the past 25 years. In 2009, WWE televised 14 live pay-per-view events and an additional 12 “WWE Presents” pay-per-view specials. Our pay-per-view productions consistently rank among the highest selling live event programs in the industry. WWE’s annual crown jewel, WrestleMania, repeatedly achieves more than one million buys worldwide. On April 5, 2009, WWE celebrated the 25th Anniversary of WrestleMania in Houston, TX before a sold-out crowd of more than 72,744 fans with millions watching at home.� The 25th Anniversary of WrestleMania set a record for the highest grossing WWE one-day entertainment event in WWE history with $52 million in gross sales.
Our international pay-per-view partners include: Sky Box Office in the UK; SkyItaliain Italy; Sky Deutschland in Germany; Sogecable (Taquilla) and Cableuropa (ONO) in Spain; Cablevision, Sky Mexico, Multimedios and Cinepolis in Mexico; SKY Perfect TV! and J:COM in Japan; Main Event in Australia; SKY Box Office in New Zealand; Canal + in France; StarHub in Singapore; Sky Pacific in Fiji; Astro Box Office Sport in Malaysia & Brunei and Showtime, E-Vision, and Orbit in the Middle East.
Live Events
Our thrOur three brands, “Raw,” “SmackDown,” “WWE NXT,” allow us to play numerous domestic markets and take advantage of the strong international demand for our events. In the fourth quarter of 2009, WWE held 57 live events domestically and 26 internationally, entertaining approximately 600,000 fans.
Venue Merchandise
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Our direct merchandise operations consist of the design, sourcing, marketing and distribution of numerous WWE-branded products, such as T-shirts, caps and many other novelty items, all of which feature our Superstars and Divas and logos. In 2009, fans attending our domestic live events spent an average of $9.58 on our merchandise.
WWE Classics On-Demand
“WWE Classics On Demand” is a Subscription Video On-Demand (SVOD) service that offers highly-rated classic television shows, best-selling pay-per-view events, specials and original programming. The service draws its material from WWE's extensive 100,000 hour video library, the largest of its kind in the world, and includes other iconic wrestling brands, such as WCW, ECW and AWA. “WWE Classics” subscribers have access to approximately 40 hours of content each month.
WWE Classics is currently distributed with 14 of the top 15 MSOs in the United States, making it available to more than 80 percent of VOD-enabled subscribers. Major North American distributors currently include: Comcast Communications; Cox Communications; Charter Communications; Cablevision; Mediacom; Insight; Rogers Communications; Suddenlink; Verizon Communications; Bresnan Communications and RCN. “WWE Classics” is internationally distributed as well.
WWE Classics was launched in October 2004 under the name, “WWE 24/7” On Demand. The service was re-branded in April 2009 and features the new name, logo and on-screen graphics.