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Showing posts with label Television Ratings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Television Ratings. Show all posts

November 7, 2023

The CW Network To Become The Exclusive Broadcast Home To WWE NXT

NXT Makes Broadcast Television Debut with Five-Year Deal Beginning October 2024
Network to Air Live Events Featuring WWE’s Next Generation of Superstars 52 Weeks a Year

November 7, 2023 (Burbank, CA & Stamford, Conn.) – The CW Network will become the official broadcast home to WWE NXT in October 2024. The five-year agreement marks the first time in its 13-year history that WWE NXT – which showcases WWE’s hottest up-and-coming Superstars – will air on a broadcast television network. WWE NXT will debut on The CW Network in October 2024 and air 52 live weekly events throughout the season.

“We are thrilled to welcome the WWE brand into the CW Sports portfolio as they play an integral role in our mission to bring live sporting events to the network year-round,” said Dennis Miller, President, The CW Network. “WWE NXT is a perfect fit for The CW thanks to its dynamic young talent featuring the hottest rising stars in the sport and exhilarating, unpredictable weekly events. The passion and engagement of WWE’s fanbase is unmatched, and we are eager to grow that audience as WWE NXT’s new home on broadcast television.”

“The CW has made impressive moves over the past year with its live sports programming schedule,” said Nick Khan, WWE President. “It’s a truly exciting opportunity to expand NXT’s audience by bringing the show to broadcast television for the first time in NXT’s history.”

Launched by WWE Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque, WWE NXT has aired weekly since 2012 and features the brightest young talent in sports entertainment. Nearly 90% of the participants in last year’s WrestleMania were developed under the NXT banner. Led by WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels, NXT is popular with younger audiences, ranking No. 1 in cable primetime on Tuesday nights last quarter among adults 18-49 and 18-34. Year to date, NXT’s average viewership is up 30% among adults 18-49. WWE Superstars, such as Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch, have come up through NXT.

WWE NXT joins a growing roster of live sports on The CW Network, including ACC football and basketball games airing every Saturday throughout the season and LIV Golf. The CW is also the new home of the Emmy-award winning weekly studio series “Inside the NFL” and will broadcast NASCAR Xfinity Series beginning in 2025. The network will soon offer more than 500 hours of sports programming year-round.

October 11, 2023

WWE NXT Viewership Triumphs Over AEW Dynamite in Tuesday Showdown

On October 10th, AEW Dynamite and WWE NXT clashed, with the former airing a special Title Tuesday edition featuring multiple title shifts and Adam Copeland's debut match against Luchasaurus. This came as Major League Baseball playoffs were scheduled on TBS for October 11th.


On the other hand, WWE NXT promised fans a star-studded evening with the likes of John Cena, Cody Rhodes, Asuka, and Paul Heyman in attendance. Fans also anticipated appearances from NXT Women’s Champion Becky Lynch, North American Champion Dominik Mysterio, and possibly, The Undertaker, following circulating rumors of his presence.

Before the showdown, reports mentioned Triple H and Shawn Michaels aiming to highlight the dominance of NXT over AEW. Tony Khan, on the other hand, had a sharp retort, labeling the NXT heads as "bald a**holes."

According to Wrestlenomics' Brandon Thurston, WWE NXT garnered an impressive 921,000 average viewers and a 0.3 rating in the 18-49 demographic. AEW Dynamite, in comparison, achieved an average of 609,000 viewers and a 0.26 rating in the crucial demographic.

Interestingly, while NXT dominated in viewership during the October 3rd episode, AEW Dynamite led in the key demographic against the October 4th NXT episode.

September 21, 2023

WWE’s ‘Smackdown’ to Move from Fox to USA Network in New Rights Deal

WWE’s “SmackDown” is officially set to return to USA Network in a new five-year rights deal.

The weekly show currently airs on Fox but will move to its new network home in October 2024 when the Fox deal expires. “Smackdown” originally began airing on Fox in 2019 as part of a five-year deal between the network and WWE. It had previously aired on USA Network from 2016-2019 and had a number of network homes before that, including Syfy, The CW, UPN, and MyNetworkTV.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but sources say the new deal is worth roughly $1.4 billion, up from the $1 billion Fox paid in 2019. As part of the new deal for “Smackdown,” WWE will produce four primetime specials per year for NBC, marking the first time that WWE will air in primetime on the network. It is unknown at this time exactly what form those primetime specials will take, i.e. if they will feature live wrestling or if they will be more documentary-focused like WWE’s programming on A&E. According to an individual with knowledge of the deal, the exact nature of the specials is still being determined.

“NBCUniversal has been a tremendous partner of WWE for decades,” said WWE president Nick Khan. “We are excited to extend this longstanding relationship by bringing ‘SmackDown’ to USA Network on Friday nights and look forward to debuting multiple WWE special events annually on NBC.”

The rights deals for both “Smackdown” and “Monday Night Raw” were due to expire in the next year. While “Smackdown’s” future has been determined, there is no word yet on where “Raw” will land. It currently also airs on USA Network, as does WWE’s NXT. Sources say that there has been serious interest from a number of top platforms but no deal has been made at the time of this publishing. Neither of the other two shows is expected to continue to on USA Network, according to sources.

“It’s a privilege and thrill to continue NBCU’s decades-long partnership with WWE which has helped cement USA Network’s consistent position as the top-rated cable entertainment network in live viewership” said Frances Berwick, chairman of NBCUniversal Entertainment. “With Friday nights on USA, primetime specials on NBC, and the WWE hub on Peacock, we’ll continue to use the power of our portfolio to superserve this passionate fanbase.”

Since 2021, NBCUniversal’s Peacock has been the exclusive streaming home of the WWE Network. That includes the company’s expansive library of wrestling shows as well as the home for annual events like WrestleMania, the Royal Rumble, Summer Slam, and more.

WWE was recently sold to Endeavor, which merged WWE with the UFC to form a new company dubbed TKO Group. Vince McMahon, former CEO of WWE, has assumed the role of executive chairman of TKO Group. Under the terms of the deal, McMahon — who was WWE’s controlling shareholder — will own 16.4% of the economic interests in TKO (and 16.4% of the voting power in the new entity). McMahon stepped down as WWE’s chief executive in 2022 amid an investigation by the company’s board into alleged hush-money payments to women who accused him of sexual misconduct. McMahon returned to the company in January 2023 as executive chairman to head up efforts to sell WWE.


source:  variety.com

August 11, 2023

Details On Endeavor Deal, WWE-UFC Merger And Plans For NXT

Following the news from earlier this week that the WWE-UFC merger under Endeavor is expected to close next month, Dave Meltzer's latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter offers up some additional details. The report states that layoffs and other efforts to save money are expected to begin within the company very soon. Additionally, Meltzer indicates that people within Endeavor are hoping to work with WWE to make NXT more of a "sustainable third brand."

The idea behind that is to increase the show's ratings, allowing it to bring in higher TV rights fees. According to Meltzer, the company hopes to make NXT a touring brand once again, with both live events and TV taped on the road. However, there is no timeline for when this will become a reality.

As for the previously discussed revival of "NXT U.K.," there is reportedly an idea for a full-time Performance Center in London, as well as the introduction of a new show focused on all of Europe. However, there will be no updates on that until at least next year.

WWE's stock price hit another record-high earlier this week, reaching $114 per share, giving the company a market valuation of nearly $8.5 billion. When the dust settles, the board of TKO will include six individuals from Endeavor and five from WWE. On the WWE side, that includes both Vince McMahon and current WWE CEO Nick Khan, as well as Steve Koonin, Nancy Teliem, and one more individual who has yet to be revealed.

In addition to remaining on the Board of Directors, Vince McMahon will own 16.4% of the stock for the new company, which will be called TKO. Stephanie McMahon will own 1.1% while Linda McMahon will have 0.3% of the company's stock. There was no word on how many shares Shane McMahon will own.

June 12, 2023

WWE Media Rights Negotiating Windows With NBCUniversal & FOX Have Ended

A report from New York Post’s Andrew Marchand reveals the exclusive WWE TV rights negotiating windows for both FOX and NBCUniversal have closed for RAW and SmackDown. 

WWE is free to explore signing a deal with other networks and streaming platforms.

One of the leading streaming platforms expected to enter into talks with WWE is Amazon Prime Video. The likes of Apple and Warner Bros. Discovery may show interest but are not expected to make a play for the broadcasting rights.

In regard to traditional broadcasters, FOX and NBCU are still reportedly the favorites to retain WWE broadcast, but Disney has shown interest in WWE programming to air on FX but not ESPN, as ESPN "can’t guarantee a specific night of the week due to their rotating slate of games."

The report noted something very interesting, “One nugget I was told that may interest wrestling fans is that Warner Bros. Discovery does not have to stay exclusive to AEW. It would be something if it got in on WWE. But I don’t see it yet.”

June 8, 2023

WWE Touts Nearly 90M U.S. Fans as CEO Says “It’s Time to Monetize” With New TV Deals

April 7, 2023

Analysis Shows WWE's Fan-Driven Business Metrics Improved Under Paul Levesque

However you feel about the state of WWE programming and the specifics of how shows have or haven't differed when spearheaded by Paul "Triple H" Levesque as compared to Vince McMahon, there absolutely have been differences. Levesque brought back various wrestlers who had been cut by the previous regime, and under his guidance, the last-minute changes that were constant under McMahon had subsided. Past that, it becomes a matter of personal preference and business metrics. On Thursday, Wrestlenomics offered the latter, comparing TV ratings and live attendance for Levesque's eight months running creative to how McMahon's WWE was doing a year earlier. And the answers are favorable to Levesque.

On the TV side, "WWE Raw" averaged 1.80 million viewers each week under Levesque, up 4% from McMahon a year prior, which is doubly impressive considering USA's reach among cable customers has dropped. "WWE SmackDown," meanwhile, saw a bigger increase, going up 6%, from an average of 2.14 million viewers under McMahon to 2.28 million viewers under Levesque. Since "SmackDown" is on FOX, a free broadcast network, the caveat about its potential viewership does not apply, though.

As for ticket sales, that data is from WrestleTix, which is able to count tickets distributed, but without being able to distinguish between paid admissions and comps. With that out of the way, for every month of the Levesque era, "Raw" averaged a higher number of tickets out than the McMahon regime did a year prior, and "SmackDown" did the same for all but one month, even with the latter including the initial surge in interest when WWE resumed touring after COVID-19 precautions eased. Across the full eight-month periods being compared, "SmackDown" averaged 8,555 tickets distributed for Levesque vs. 7,532 for McMahon, a 14% increase, while "Raw" averaged 8,463 tickets distributed for Levesque vs. McMahon's 6,787, a 25% increase. And though the McMahon period had a 2% lead on Levesque's for domestic house shows, that gain was carried by August through November 2021, the early months of post-pandemic touring.

March 7, 2023

Wells Fargo Analysis Says Fox Unlikely To Renew WWE SmackDown At Increased Rights Fee

WWE's domestic television rights are up for negotiation and renewal this year for broadcasts effective September 2024. This is at least the stated reason for why Vince McMahon returned to the company's board of directors, to steer an attempt to sell the company. In particular, given the expense of sports media rights, the idea was that one distribution partner might entertain buying the company outright. Last month, though, that idea was complicated by the report that Comcast — one of the most theoretically likely buyers, with its approximately $465 million/year commitment for "WWE Raw" on USA Network and WWE Network on Peacock – was not interested in buying the wrestling company. 

On Tuesday, a new wrinkle surfaced that throws another wrench into what's going on: If Fox were to renew "WWE SmackDown," it would not be at an increased rate over its current $205 million/year.

Forbes SportsMoney editor Mike Ozanian tweeted a screenshot from a presentation generated by Wells Fargo Securities analysts about WWE's domestic media rights prospects. The main takeaway was that they don't think Fox is willing to do a new deal at a higher price. He adds that it's "possible" that this could lead to the price of "SmackDown" being partially underwritten by a streaming partner in the new contract or the show outright leaving its current spot on Fox.

In May 2018, The Hollywood Reporter, in detailing the WWE/Fox negotiations, noted that Fox Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch played heavily on the McMahon family's insecurities during their talks, including that Comcast/NBC Universal was "embarrassed by your product." His son, CEO Lachlan Murdoch, laid it on thicker, reportedly adding that, in reporter Marisa Guthrie's words, that the deal "would herald the marriage of the Murdochs and the McMahons, rebel outsiders who had built media empires."

September 24, 2021

The Way TV Ratings Are Measured Is Changing, WWE & AEW To Be Impacted




The 18-49 demographic viewership has long been considered the most important number for advertisers when it comes to analyzing the ratings of U.S. television broadcasts.

The higher the 18-49 demo, there more advertisers have been traditionally willing to spend on commercials, however, that is all about to change.

A report in the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter, reveals there’s going to be a shift away from the traditional 18-49 being used as the sole deciding factor for advertisers and where they spend their money.

The new key data for advertisers to watch will be "total impressions" a show is able to generate. This will reportedly include streaming and on-demand numbers, rather than live broadcasting viewership or demographics.

The change is expected to come in January 2022 and it will be very interesting to see how this impacts both WWE and AEW, especially since they focus on their 18-49 demographic viewership. The belief is that when the new numbers are included, the genre that will benefit the most are sports programs and shows on streaming services such as Netflix.

August 28, 2021

Friday's WWE SmackDown Soars To Almost 3 Million Viewers On FOX

A report from SpoilerTV reveals that Friday's WWE SmackDown on FOX, which featured all the fallout from this past Saturday's SummerSlam 2021 pay-per-view drew an overnight viewership of 2.933 million viewers.

The 2-hour broadcast also scored a 0.7 rating in the key 18-49 demographic.

The viewership increased significantly from the week previous, which delivered 2.237 million viewers and a 0.55 rating 18-49 demographic.

July 23, 2021

Triple H on WWE Taking a ‘Hard Look’ on How to Attract More Fans to the Product

The North State Journal recently spoke to WWE executive Paul "Triple H" Levesque who said that WWE would “take a hard look” at how to attract more fans to the NXT product every week.

“It never is one thing. We see this as a moment in time to shift everything. I think you’ll see it in just the layout of everything, the set designs, the way it’s presented. There’s a greater emphasis on utilizing the spaces that we have and the TV aspect of it while still engaging the fans. A lot of that comes from the time we had to experiment inside the ThunderDome.”

July 22, 2021

WWE NXT Scores Best Ratings In Months Despite NBA Finals Competition

Tuesday’s live edition of WWE NXT drew 709,000 viewers on the USA Network, according to Nielsen via Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics.

This is up 0.6% from last week’s show, which drew 705,000 viewers.

Tuesday’s NXT drew a 0.20 rating in the key 18-49 demographic. This is up slightly from last week’s 0.19 rating in the key demo. This 0.20 rating represents 253,000 viewers in the 18-49 demo, which is up from last week’s 245,000 18-49 viewers.

This week’s NXT drew the most viewers since the May 4 episode, despite having the second-half of the show go against the NBA Finals, which started at 9 pm ET.

June 16, 2021

Triple H Comments On AEW Ratings ‘Lie’

In a recent sitdown with Wrestling Inc. Daily, Wrestling Inc, Axel Tishcer, formerly known to WWE and NXT audiences as Alexander Wolfe discussed his relationship with Triple H and the recently ended ‘Wednesday Night War’ between WWE NXT and All Elite Wrestling. Here, the ex-Wolfe told managing editor Nick Hausman his thoughts on the competition between the two companies, that stated how allegedly Triple H relayed to talent that USA does not care about the ever-popular 18-49 demographic like AEW and their flagship show, Dynamite does – instead putting a core focus on viewership. 


 “It’s always a competition no matter which promotion. Competition keeps us guys thriving,” Tischer stated. “A lot of people say competition is healthy for the business, and even before AEW, we were always in competition. There are more promotions out there other than AEW still. He also mentioned, for example, the demo because a lot of people are like, ‘AEW scored more viewers in the 18-49 demo,’ and the funny part was he gave us a little insight.” 

 USA Network, they are not aiming for that demo. They can have the demo because it’s not important about who has the bigger ratings. You have a contract with a channel. That’s what I’m say right now not what he said. You have a contract with the channel. They pay you an amount per year to produce the product. As long as they’re happy, nothing else counts because you have to satisfy the guys who pay you and also the guys who you switch in. 

 And if you’re in the demo and you want to watch NXT, you watch NXT. If you want to watch AEW, watch AEW. That’s the beauty of freedom of choice. I think it got too oversaturated with this Wednesday Night War because everybody wanted to go back to the Monday Night War because it was so exciting, and they battled each other and it was about ratings. ‘There’s another war coming with AEW. One of the main bosses from AEW, he got fired by WWE, so he wants to take them out of business.’ That’s too corny for me.”

May 22, 2021

Friday Ratings: ‘Shark Tank’ And ‘WWE Friday Night SmackDown’ Tie In Demos

ABC’s Shark Tank and Fox’s WWE Friday Night SmackDown tied in the demo wars for Friday night, with the season finale of Shark Tank edging out wrestling by virtue of its larger audience.

The Sharks in this episode included Mark Cuban, Kevin O’Leary, Lori Greiner, Daymond John and Robert Herjavec

WWE Friday Night SmackDown had a Fatal 4-Way Intercontinental Championship match between Big E, Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens and Intercontinental champion Apollo Crews as its draw.

source: deadline.com

May 20, 2021

AEW Dynamite Viewership And Key Demo Rating Down From Last Week’s Show

Wednesday’s live edition of AEW Dynamite drew 821,000 viewers on TNT, according to Nielsen via Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer.

This AEW viewership is down 12.3% from last week’s show, which drew 936,000 viewers.

This week’s Dynamite drew a 0.28 rating in the 18-49 key demographic. This is down 9.7% from last week’s 0.31 rating in the key demo.

WWE NXT Viewership Up From Last Week With Steel Cage Main Event

Tuesday’s live edition of WWE NXT, featuring Bronson Reed defeating Johnny Gargano to win the NXT North American Title in the Steel Cage main event, drew 700,000 viewers on the USA Network, according to Nielsen via @SportsTVRatings.

This viewership is up 0.43% from last week’s show, which drew 697,000 viewers.

May 13, 2021

AEW Dynamite Viewership Fell Back Below 1 Million Viewers This Week

AEW viewership dropped this week following last week's highly anticipated Blood & Guts match.

The two-hour broadcast on TNT this week pulled in 936,000 viewers, which is down from 1.090 million last week, according to PWTorch.

The episode scored a 0.66 cable rating, which is also down from 0.72 last week, and delivered a 0.38 demographic rating in the 18-49 category, down from 0.42 the week previous.

May 5, 2021

Chris Jericho Refutes Triple H Saying AEW vs. NXT Ratings War Was 'Imaginary'

EW star Chris Jericho fired back at WWE NXT founder Triple H on Tuesday regarding the Wednesday night ratings battle between AEW and NXT.

During a recent appearance on Cheap Heat with Peter Rosenberg, Triple H referred to the rivalry between AEW and NXT as an "imaginary war" on Wednesday nights:

"The promotional opportunity for us is much better on a Tuesday. And also then not having to have a narrative where it's just constantly about an imaginary war, or this imaginary battle. And, you know, people can say what they want, but the truth of the matter is you compete against everything. If you are creating a television product or content—that is the world we live in is content not television, not internet. It's everything. So you're constantly competing for eyeballs and time against everything under the sun, including sleep and time to do other things, and video games, and TikTok and everything else that's out there."

In an interview with Joseph Staszewski of the New York Post, Jericho suggested Triple H created the "imaginary war" narrative only because AEW had higher ratings the vast majority of the time:

"It will be there for the rest of time, it was an 'imaginary war,' and if it wasn't a war why did they take Wednesday night the exact same time that we had? It was there to take away our ratings and for us not to get re-signed. Three months after that started we were re-signed to a hundreds-of millions-of-dollars extension. They failed."

After more than a year of AEW and NXT going head-to-head on Wednesday nights, NXT moved to Tuesdays on April 13, marking the end of the Wednesday night wrestling war regardless of whether it was real or imagined.

Jericho added: 

"That's typical WWE. It's typical rhetoric. Because I believe that they congratulated us the first week and said, if you remember, 'It's a marathon, not a sprint.' We won the marathon, right? So now it's an imaginary war. Well then why were they saying it's a marathon, not a sprint a year-and-a-half ago when our first rating came out?"

WWE NXT Viewership Rises, But Its Demographic Number Dips

WWE NXT suffered a decline in viewership last week, but the show somewhat bounced back on May 4.

According to ShowbuzzDaily, the viewership climbed up to 761,000 this week, a slight increase from last week’s 744,000.

As for the 18-49 demographic, WWE NXT drew a 0.18 rating, a notable drop compared to last week’s number of 0.22. Overall, the show ranked 21st among the top 150 original programs on cable.

The May 4 episode included an NXT Women’s Tag Team Championship Match, a Falls Count Anywhere Match between Leon Ruff and Isaiah “Swerve” Scott, and the return of Finn Balor.


NXT VIEWERSHIP YEAR-TO-DATE RANKINGS

Apr. 20: 841,000 – 2021 High

Jan. 14: 551,000 – 2021 Low

May 5: 761,000 – This Week

April 27, 2021

WWE Most Wanted Treasures Viewership Up

Sunday’s second episode of WWE Most Wanted Treasures drew 769,000 viewers on A&E at 10pm. The one-hour show drew a 0.27 rating like the Biography on Piper, tying for the #10 spot on the Cable Top 150.


This is up from last week’s Most Wanted Treasures premiere, which drew 766,000 viewers. Last Sunday’s premiere drew a 0.29 rating in the key demo, ranking #11 on the Cable Top 150.

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