Vince McMahon conference call - WWE Network, third quarter financial report

Vince McMahon hosted a conference call pertaining to the third quarter financial report that WWE released on November 1, 2012. The following are the highlights of the call:

Michael Weitz of WWE Investor Relations opened the call and noted that he was joined by Vince McMahon and WWE CFO George Barrios. Weitz noted that he hoped the callers on the East Coast were able to weather the storm. turned the call over to Vince.

Vince said the quarter was where they expected to be, perhaps better. He noted that it was down from last year. He noted that their video game business down slightly only because they did not release a second title as they did last year.

Vince said social media "is through the roof and will continue to be for quite some time."

Vince said television ratings are good. He said they remain the No. 1 show on USA Network and Syfy. Vince said the third hour of Raw is doing "extremely well." He also touted the debuts of WWE Saturday Morning Slam and WWE Main Event. He also noted they launch of WWE programming on Hulu Plus, and discussed the deals to make the Scooby Doo movie and the ABC Family Christmas special.

"The mobile app is extraordinary," Vince said. He noted that it will be interactive over the next couple of weeks in ways that no television show has ever been. "This is going to be revolutionary in the amount and the way we do it."

Vince said the WWE Network will be a premium subscription model. He said it will be the most interactive network in the world. He said there is movement on the network, then turned over the call to Barrios.

Barrios ran through the financial report and spoke about the new television deals and the increased number of television hours. He said it will not prevent them from launching a television network. He also sang the praises of their social media success by boasting about their Facebook "likes" count and Twitter followers.

Revenue from ticket sales were flat compared to the prior year quarter. Revenue in North America was up, and the company targeted areas that were doing better economically.

Buys for WrestleMania were eight percent above the previous year, and the overall pay-per-view sales of the nine events this year were up nine percent compared to the same events in 2011.

Television revenue was flat. Barrios attributed this to having fewer episodes of Smackdown within the quarter compared to last year, and ad rates.

Barrios noted that the extra hour of Raw is performing better than NCIS reruns did for USA Network.

The No Holds Barred movie re-release is on pace to turn a $300,000 profit.

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