The WWE Network averaged 1,517,000 paid subscribers for Q2 2016: the quarter in which WrestleMania 32 took place. This is in line with the company’s earlier projections that average paid subscriptions for the quarter would be between 1,480,000 and 1,550,000.
The quarter ended on June 30, with 1,511,000 paid subscribers. Ending-period paid subscribers are up 1,156,000 from Q2 2015, a year ago. Average paid subscribers are up from 1,216,000 during the same period last year.
Those figures were reported as WWE issued its Q2 (April 1 to June 30) earnings release this morning. Other interesting information revealed:
- The paid attendance for WrestleMania 32 was between 73,711 and 85,888. This is based on average attendances calculated with and without WrestleMania for the quarter that WWE provided in its Key Performance Indicators.
- OIBDA (WWE’s profit-like metric of choice) was just $7.5 million for the quarter, down from $27.6 million in the previous quarter, and down from $13.2 million in Q2 2015.
- 471,000 WWE Network subscriptions were cancelled in Q2. WWE’s most important event, WrestleMania took place on the third day of the quarter. That’s an improvement from last year. 508,000 subscriptions were cancelled in Q2 2015, following WrestleMania that year.
Source: WWE Q2 2016 Key Performance Indicators
- Attendance has not suffered badly due to the absence of John Cena from live events from January to May. Average North American live event attendance for Q2 2016 was 6,600. Taking WrestleMania’s attendance out of that calculation, average attendance for the quarter was 5,400. That’s unchanged from the same quarter last year, even though Cena was on a full schedule last year. Cena was off all live events (except an unadvertised appearance at WrestleMania 32) from the very beginning of January this year, until his return on May 30. While regularly appearing on TV, he has worked limited house show dates since his return, whereas he worked a full schedule before going out with a shoulder injury in late 2015.
Documents WWE released this morning include:
- Trending Schedules
- Key Performance Indicators
- Investor Presentation
- Earnings Press Release
The conference call for this release can be listened to live at 11:00AM EST on WWE’s corporate website, at this link. WWE CEO Vince McMahon and Chief Strategy and Financial Office George Barrios are expected to speak and answer questions. We will have a report of any news coming out of the call, soon after it’s over.
