WWE has seen a decline in both the Television Viewership number and Live Event attendance in last few years and it appears that this decline has start to reflect on their revenue as well.
The company recently released the financial results for the first quarter of 2019 and the Officials noted that their revenue was $182.4 million, down from $187.7 million viewers last week.
What’s interesting to note is that the company reported a net loss of $8.4 million which can be calculated as $0.11 loss per share. This is in comparison to $14.8 million, or $0.18 per share profit in the first quarter of 2018.
The company CEO Vince McMahon talked about this unexpected financial result and cited the absence of superstars as the reason for the loss:
“During the quarter, we continued to execute our strategy and achieved targeted financial results, While engagement metrics over the past two quarters were impacted by Superstar absences, we believe they will improve as our talent return and we launch our new season following a successful WrestleMania. We remain excited about the future, particularly with our debut on Fox in October.”
Below are some other important financial points from the official press release of the quarter:
WWE® Reports First Quarter 2019 Results
Maintains Path to Record Full-Year Performance
First Quarter 2019 Highlights
* Revenues were $182.4 million as compared to $187.7 million in the prior year quarter
* Operating income reflected a loss of $6.8 million as compared to income of $21.8 million in the prior year quarter
* Adjusted OIBDA of $12.4 million was within the range of guidance ($9 million to $14 million), and reflected an anticipated year-over-year decline primarily due to strategic investments
* WWE Network average paid subscribers increased 2% to 1.58 million paid subscribers, consistent with the Company’s guidance
* Digital video views increased 15% to 7.7 billion; hours consumed increased 23% to 300 million hours across digital platforms; and social media followers increased 12% to over 1.0 billion
Selected WrestleMania Highlights
* WrestleMania (April 7, 2019) broke the record for MetLife Stadium’s highest grossing entertainment event at $16.9 million, attracting a capacity crowd of 82,265 fans
* WWE Network subscribers viewed 23.2 million hours during WrestleMania week, which was roughly on par with the same week last year
* During WrestleMania week, 17.9 million hours were consumed on digital and social media platforms, up 29% from the prior year
* WWE Network’s total subscribers reached 2.0 million on April 8, 2019, the day after WrestleMania
* WrestleMania featured a historic, first-ever women’s main event starring Ronda Rousey, Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch
