Consumer Products
WWE offers a wide variety of consumer products through a licensing program and an integrated direct sales effort.
Licensing
Our worldwide licensing program builds partnerships with companies around the globe to create products featuring our marks and logos, copyrighted works and characters in diverse categories, including: toys, video games, apparel, housewares, collectibles, sporting goods, books and more. WWE licensed products, created by our more than 130 licensees worldwide, are available at all major retailers, including Walmart, Kmart, Toys “R” Us, Target, GameStop, Tesco and Ackermans.
In January 2010, Mattel became WWE's master toy licensee developing and marketing products in a wide variety of toy categories on a global basis. WWE was the #2 Action Figure Brand in the US in 2011, ahead of Star Wars and Beyblade (NPD January 2011 – December2011).
WWE video games have sold more than 57 million units since 1999, generating more than $1.7 billion in revenues. "WWE '12" has sold over 2 million units since its release in November 2011 and is available on the Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, and Sony PlayStation 3 platforms. “WWE All Stars,” an over-the-top, high-flying, arcade-style game, brings together two generations of WWE Superstars in one virtual ring. The game launched in March 2011 and has sold nearly 1.5 million units. "WWE SmackDown vs Raw 2011" has sold nearly 3.5 million units to date.
WWE produces books including: biographies of our Superstars, Divas and Legends; historical anthologies; children’s books; comic books; fitness guides; fiction; photo journals; and many others. Nearly half (twenty-three) of our books have appeared on “The New York Times Best Seller List.”
Home Video
WWE Home Video released five new titles in the first quarter of 2012, three of which were released on Blu-ray and all five were released electronically. According to Nielsen Video Scan (through April 1, 2012), WWE had six of the top 10 titles in the Sports charts in 2012, and has a commanding Number One position and 44 percent market share in the Sports category.
Outside the United States, our new home video productions and catalog titles are distributed through international licensing agreements in the UK, Ireland, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, France, Germany, Greece, Portugal, Spain, Belgium, Holland, Canada, Japan, India, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, New Zealand, Brunei, South Africa, Mexico, Central America and the Middle East territories.
Magazine Publishing
The company's magazine division consists of WWE Magazine, WWE Specials and WWE Kids magazine.
The flagship title, WWE Magazine, is a global publication with native editions in the UK, Mexico and Turkey. Every issue contains features, photos, exclusive interviews and access that fans won’t see on television. In the United States, WWE Magazine reaches more than 5.1 million readers each month.
WWE Kids magazine debuted in April 2008 and now has licensed editions in the UK and Turkey. In the United States, WWE Kids reaches more than 1.3 million readers per issue.
Music
Music is and has always been an integral part of the entertainment experience linking the WWE brand to all media platforms including television, film, radio, video games, live events, ring tones and other emerging digital technologies. In addition to composing, producing, and recording our own music which includes Superstar and Diva entrance themes, WWE Music Group licenses commercial music for use across our television, pay-per-view and motion picture platforms. Artist performances have also been a key strategy in making the musical connection part of the overall experience for our audience around the world.
The ninth annual WWE “Tribute to the Troops” holiday special featured live performances by Grammy Award-winning R&B sensation Mary J. Blige and multi-platinum rock band Nickelback. The special, which aired on NBC and USA Network, showcased selections from both artists’ concerts before the thousands of military personnel and families in attendance. Mary J. Blige serenaded the servicemen and women with her breakout classic “Family Affair” and current single “Need Someone.” Nickelback showed their appreciation with a heartfelt rendition of the group's latest hit “When We Stand Together” and the official theme song for "Monday Night Raw," "Burn It to the Ground,” thus bringing WWE's multi-year partnership full-circle.
Also during the past quarter, WWE unveiled official theme music for the 25th anniversary of Survivor Series, “Good Feeling” by Atlantic Records recording artist Flo Rida, which served to further the excitement surrounding one of the biggest pay-per-view events of the year. Introducing the song to WWE’s audience and using it in promotional efforts across WWE programming and platforms yielded coveted global exposure in the weeks following the song’s commercial release as a single, and helped lay groundwork for its rise to Number One on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The 2011 WWE “Slammy Awards” aired December 12 during "Monday Night Raw" and featured music from acclaimed acts like Diddy-Dirty Money, Daughtry, fun. (ft. Janelle Mon�e), Breathe Carolina, Freesol (ft. Justin Timberlake) and others.
On the theatrical front, the accompanying musical score to WWE Studios’ latest film "The Reunion" was composed at WWE’s television studio in Stamford, CT. The official film soundtrack is available now and includes licensed songs from recording artists Trini Lopez, Josh Rouse, Papi Sanchez, and Latin hip-hop group Los Rakas.
In keeping current with the music industry’s expansion towards digital music, WWE continues to release every WWE Superstar theme song exclusively via iTunes. This effort serves to not only continue WWE’s relationship with the leading digital music retailer, but affords audiences around the world the chance to own the songs heard across programming each week, without having to wait for a full-length album release.