WWE Network Thread

PTH2009

TimesArrow wrote: »

The Yokozuna doc was excellent. Well worn a watch

I know it’s said a lot, but it’s kind of sad to see Vince on camera looking so old and frail nowadays

Yeah it was a great episode, looking forward to the rest of the series

It was such a sad story,family genetics are such a terrible thing sometimes. A load of polynesian people are naturally massive

Agent Coulson

Reading an interview with one of the reporters for Forbes that keeps an eye on wrestling he is saying the NBCU Peacock deal is a testing ground for them to see if they will buy the WWE otherwise spending a billion on content belonging to someone else doesn't make financial sense unless they intend to buy the company.

Agent Coulson

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that after 10 months on air The Peacock Network isn't that popular as a paid service it has 33 million sign ups where only 4% of them pay the $9.99 full price for the ad free version, There is a $4.99 version as well however the vast majority of subscribers use the free ad-supported version and only has 11 million active users.


Peacock is set to lose about $2billion in its first 2 years.


The WWE Network would fall into the $4.99 version.

Monokne

About 9 million of those 33 get it with their cable package for free. That is how I have it.

The gimmick with all these streaming services launching in the US at the mo - ESPN+, Peacock, HBO Max - is to be loss leaders with the hope that eventually they will be profitable once everything migrates away from traditional TV to streaming. They'll gradually up the price, as we see with Netflix, Prime, Disney+, ESPN etc.

Sirsok

Monokne wrote: »

About 9 million of those 33 get it with their cable package for free. That is how I have it.

The gimmick with all these streaming services launching in the US at the mo - ESPN+, Peacock, HBO Max - is to be loss leaders with the hope that eventually they will be profitable once everything migrates away from traditional TV to streaming. They'll gradually up the price, as we see with Netflix, Prime, Disney+, ESPN etc.

Until the next thing comes along. Netflix was so great because cable companies or sky packages just became so unaffordable. Same was sports packages remain now.

Now with all these streaming services , it is going to become unaffordable to be a subscriber to all these various platforms.

Spotify will prob start suffering when record labels start pulling musicians content of Spotify for their own streaming network

LineOfBeauty

Well, the weekend just gone was pretty horrific. That Progress ran at all was a questionable decision to say the least given what'd gone on in the Britwres scene and that Progress had been front and center as a home promotion for a lot of those implicated in Speaking Out. But, they trudge it out there anyway. Then it comes out that Paul Robinson was involved as an agent for the show. This comes out, people are up in arms. Progress defend themselves by saying "well, we asked the roster if they were OK with Robinson being involved and nobody raised any objections" keeping in mind the point of these shows was to feature young wrestlers, of course they aren't going to raise any objections given the platform involved, the history of the company, and the position of power Robinson is in. You couldn't make this stuff up, these guys are no better than they were pre Speaking Out, burn the scene down, take the companies into the shed and put a bullet in their heads and start again and be better. Pathetic.

montyrebel

only paul robinson i know is in neighbours

LineOfBeauty

montyrebel wrote: »

only paul robinson i know is in neighbours

Better to keep it that way.

beakerjoe

montyrebel wrote: »

only paul robinson i know is in neighbours

Ex Spurs Goalkeeper no?

PTH2009

Anyone see that A&E are doing a biography series on WWE stars. Interesting that's its not under the wwe network banner

https://prowrestling.net/site/2021/02/23/ae-and-wwe-studios-documentary-series-to-premiere-in-april/

I'm not sure if it will affect us but I've been reading on twitter that people are saying (could be 100% false) that the priority for the peacock move is main roster modern day stuff, NXT, PPV and originals + docs.

A few quoted Meltzer as well that he said all the old stuff definitely won't carry over.

PTH2009

https://www.wwe.com/article/wwe-network-schedule-2021-03-01

'Highlighting the schedule is this Sunday’s world premiere of HEAVEN, which tells the story of high school athlete Heaven Fitch. Fitch made history in 2020 by becoming the first female to win a boy’s state wrestling championship in North Carolina. Narrated by Beth Phoenix, this film marks WWE Network Documentaries’ first foray outside the genre of sports-entertainment, and it will be available to stream on demand on the Free Version of WWE Network and across WWE social channels'

Interesting that the network is starting to expand from the genre

Monokne

PTH2009 wrote: »

https://www.wwe.com/article/wwe-network-schedule-2021-03-01

'Highlighting the schedule is this Sunday’s world premiere of HEAVEN, which tells the story of high school athlete Heaven Fitch. Fitch made history in 2020 by becoming the first female to win a boy’s state wrestling championship in North Carolina. Narrated by Beth Phoenix, this film marks WWE Network Documentaries’ first foray outside the genre of sports-entertainment, and it will be available to stream on demand on the Free Version of WWE Network and across WWE social channels'

Interesting that the network is starting to expand from the genre

This feels like a classic Vince move, still hating himself for being a pro wrestling promoter and nothing more.

Pro wrestling is *VERY* niche. No-one is subscribing to WWE network for programming that has no relationship whatsoever to pro wrestling. It's not Netflix or Prime.

Imagine putting on UFC Fightpass and there's an episode of Coronation St on it.

Vince and his notions. :rolleyes:

Monokne

Monokne wrote: »

This feels like a classic Vince move, still hating himself for being a pro wrestling promoter and nothing more.

Pro wrestling is *VERY* niche. No-one is subscribing to WWE network for programming that has no relationship whatsoever to pro wrestling. It's not Netflix or Prime.

Imagine putting on UFC Fightpass and there's an episode of Coronation St on it.

Vince and his notions. :rolleyes:

Yeah I see people online saying it's great they're branching out but I think it's ridiculous. I subscribe to the network for pro wrestling and nothing else.

chopperbyrne

Does the android app ever remember where you were in a program for anyone if you close the app part way through?

Absolute pain in the whole having to find the correct spot every time.

PTH2009

Deleted User wrote: »

Yeah I see people online saying it's great they're branching out but I think it's ridiculous. I subscribe to the network for pro wrestling and nothing else.

There was a survey sent out a year or 2 ago and i kid you not a few suggestions were. One gem was would you watch 'A Game of Thrones type series starring WWE superstars'. Jesus that would of been a train wreck

Insect Overlord

PTH2009 wrote: »

There was a survey sent out a year or 2 ago and i kid you not a few suggestions were. One gem was would you watch 'A Game of Thrones type series starring WWE superstars'. Jesus that would of been a train wreck

Couldn't have been worse than the way Season 8 of GOT went. :pac:

johnnysmack

Watching sasha banks on the stone cold sessions and only 5 minutes in but good lord, not good! She seems incredibly annoying as herself. Bayley was much better.

Monokne

Really enjoyed both.

I love how much conviction, confidence and belief Sasha has in herself. Projects like a star. I love the ambition she has too. Brave to be so ballsy with that in a male dominated world - lots of men will look down on her for it. The interview reminded me of how Ronda would speak about herself in Strikeforce, before she blew up. She projected her superstardom then made it reality.

gerrybbadd

So with the inevitable move to Peacock approaching, I cancelled my Network sub, and signed up to the free tier of Peacock using a VPN.

However, I am unable to sign up for any of the paid tiers using my Paypal or Visa Debit. Free tier is alright for now.

Itssoeasy

gerrybbadd wrote: »

So with the inevitable move to Peacock approaching, I cancelled my Network sub, and signed up to the free tier of Peacock using a VPN.

However, I am unable to sign up for any of the paid tiers using my Paypal or Visa Debit. Free tier is alright for now.

Why ? You’re in Ireland aren’t you ? The network isn’t going anywhere yet for us in Ireland. It’s the US where it’s stopping.

Monokne

Itssoeasy wrote: »

Why ? You’re in Ireland aren’t you ? The network isn’t going anywhere yet for us in Ireland. It’s the US where it’s stopping.

Yeah but if you keep your US sub, it's cheaper. $5 v €13.

hynesie08

gerrybbadd wrote: »

So with the inevitable move to Peacock approaching, I cancelled my Network sub, and signed up to the free tier of Peacock using a VPN.

However, I am unable to sign up for any of the paid tiers using my Paypal or Visa Debit. Free tier is alright for now.

You need a US card, if you know anybody in the states they can pick you up a prepaid debit card, otherwise you're SOL.

Itssoeasy

hynesie08 wrote: »

You need a US card, if you know anybody in the states they can pick you up a prepaid debit card, otherwise you're SOL.

SOL. **** of out luck ? Just a guess.

ThePott

I'm sure there's a workaround, it's the same with HBO Max but I've a work around to have that.
Can't speak to it as I won't be trying till me Network sub lapses but if you have a VPN on your phone and go to the Google store and connect a payment method (I have paypal connected) and then sign up through the app it will take whatever you have linked to your Google Play account.
Again I haven't tried it with Peacock but I'd imagine it would work the same way. I plany to ditch the network and get Peacock for WWE going forward anyway.

LineOfBeauty

Peacock announcing WWE Network stuff in a statement. Skeleton vault til the Summer. No user migration, you'll have to sign up again.

A disaster if you enjoy the classic footage. A very good chance things like Mid South or Crockett stuff never makes it over.

That WWE Network users won't automatically have a profile on Peacock is crazy. Especially given that was initially promised. What NBC were doing agreeing to this could be the subject of a book.

ThePott

If you are signing up it seems you can also get 4 months for 9.99 for a limited time.
Also unsurprisingly the match markers will be gone and the search function will not be as good on Peacock.

EDIT - Have signed up for the 4 months myself with a new account but used an American paypal account. Would imagine the method I mentioned above would work as well though.

LineOfBeauty

Ye Voices of Wrestling saying it's even worse than what's being reported. If you enjoy your territory stuff and you're in the US you're gonna be pretty upset.

Monokne

LineOfBeauty wrote: »

Peacock announcing WWE Network stuff in a statement. Skeleton vault til the Summer. No user migration, you'll have to sign up again.

A disaster if you enjoy the classic footage. A very good chance things like Mid South or Crockett stuff never makes it over.

That WWE Network users won't automatically have a profile on Peacock is crazy. Especially given that was initially promised. What NBC were doing agreeing to this could be the subject of a book.

This is bound to be a technical issue. When it was announced the first thing I thought was that there was just no way you could do that.

LineOfBeauty

Monokne wrote: »

This is bound to be a technical issue. When it was announced the first thing I thought was that there was just no way you could do that.

If they weren't able to do this then Nick Khan shouldn't have said they would. And now I really wonder how many users this move will actually add to Peacock? WWE Network currently has 1.1 domestic subscribers, how many of those bother to resubscribe? Like for the amount they've paid for this thing I don't know what the benefits are.

Has it been confirmed that our WWE network will remain unchanged? Really hope we don't lose a lot of the classic content. Only thing I use it for.

LineOfBeauty

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Has it been confirmed that our WWE network will remain unchanged? Really hope we don't lose a lot of the classic content. Only thing I use it for.

Until they find a buyer for it we're safe for now but the precedent has been set.

Itssoeasy

Deleted User wrote: »

Has it been confirmed that our WWE network will remain unchanged? Really hope we don't lose a lot of the classic content. Only thing I use it for.

Yes. The statements about peacock only apply to the United States. Everywhere else stays the same as it is now. Now I doubt it will continue like that indefinitely but as of now it’s staying the same.

Monokne

LineOfBeauty wrote: »

If they weren't able to do this then Nick Khan shouldn't have said they would. And now I really wonder how many users this move will actually add to Peacock? WWE Network currently has 1.1 domestic subscribers, how many of those bother to resubscribe? Like for the amount they've paid for this thing I don't know what the benefits are.

The only way to watch Wrestlemania will be through Peacock. Of that 1.1 million you are bound to have 10% who just never cancelled a sub. The rest will probably get it. It's either free or max $5 a month and there's loads of good content on it. I have it a few months myself. This is a sweet deal.

LineOfBeauty

Monokne wrote: »

The only way to watch Wrestlemania will be through Peacock. Of that 1.1 million you are bound to have 10% who just never cancelled a sub. The rest will probably get it. It's either free or max $5 a month and there's loads of good content on it. I have it a few months myself. This is a sweet deal.

It's a sweet deal if you have the Network for the ppvs and if you're into The Bump and whatever other current content they pump out. But if you like The Network for the classic content then this is basically the end of the road.

I'd be legit shocked if they get 1 million new subscribers to Peacock for Mania. It's been so poorly publicised and explained and there's so little time before Wrestlemania. It's impossible to prove or judge it but if they managed to convert even 700k into new Peacock subscription holders I'd be amazed.

Agent Coulson

So it could be August before the whole archive gets moved to Peacock

Also reports the search function is being report to be a lot worse than on the Network ( Hard to believe anything could be worse than the Network on that part)

Also match time markers won't be on it so you will have to fast forward instead of being able to jump to certain points in a match.


I guess this gives us an Idea of what to expect when they sell the world rights to the Network off.

Agent Coulson

Agent Coulson wrote: »

Also match time markers won't be on it so you will have to fast forward instead of being able to jump to certain points in a match.

That's brutal! I have a free trial of the impact plus app atm and it's like going back to the VHS days trying to fast forward through the show to the match you want to watch.

Monokne

LineOfBeauty wrote: »

It's a sweet deal if you have the Network for the ppvs and if you're into The Bump and whatever other current content they pump out. But if you like The Network for the classic content then this is basically the end of the road.

I'd be legit shocked if they get 1 million new subscribers to Peacock for Mania. It's been so poorly publicised and explained and there's so little time before Wrestlemania. It's impossible to prove or judge it but if they managed to convert even 700k into new Peacock subscription holders I'd be amazed.

Wrestlemania is almost 5 weeks away, 11th April.

They need to crank the pub up in the final 2 weeks. They have loads of time.

LineOfBeauty

Monokne wrote: »

Wrestlemania is almost 5 weeks away, 11th April.

They need to crank the pub up in the final 2 weeks. They have loads of time.

Personally I think when you factor in account holders that already have Peacock accounts, and then the users who maybe won't bother signing up for the new service, users who still don't know about the new service, those who've forgotten they even have membership to the WWE Network, or users who only subscribe for the archive footage and not the new footage, all those things factored together make me think 700k new users might even be a bit on the high side for Wrestlemania.

Of course, none of it matters. Even if they didn't add a single new user from the deal, WWE already has the Peacock money so it's irrelevant to them if anyone signs up specifically for WWE or not.

Monokne

Yeah there are a ton of people who already have it through their cable package. This is how I have it, through xFinity. I believe it's about 24% of the cable homes that have it. However, you have to actually physically set it up so a ton will have it and not actually know or use it.

Either way, WWE is laughing as you said.

Monokne

Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics spoke with the Executive Vice President of Peacock about the WWE network archive:

We’re going to put it all on Peacock. It just takes time to re-encode all the hours. It’s labor intensive with the meta data, imagery, closed captioned, etc. The team has it as a top priority, it will get done

oneilla

Monokne wrote: »

Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics spoke with the Executive Vice President of Peacock about the WWE network archive:

Someone better at maths than me might be able to calculate the number of hours of archive content added to the network since the launch then using the number of hours currently on the network and maybe take a guess at how long it might take for them to transfer everything over to peacock.

If NBC want to vet all of the content being added then it wouldn't surprise me if it took the length of the deal to transfer everything.

Monokne

oneilla wrote: »

Someone better at maths than me might be able to calculate the number of hours of archive content added to the network since the launch then using the number of hours currently on the network and maybe take a guess at how long it might take for them to transfer everything over to peacock.

If NBC want to vet all of the content being added then it wouldn't surprise me if it took the length of the deal to transfer everything.

Their statement said a lot of the issue is coding, whatever that means. Perhaps the file format is different on different streaming services?

I know for the network itself, the subtitling was the most labour intense piece. Anyway, their goal is summer.

Pentecost

What are those that were still on US subs doing? I'm not sure I really use it enough to be bothered paying 13 quid each month and Mania is not really grabbing me either. I'm not really motivated enough for a load of tricking about with VPNs and hacks that may or may not work. Anyone got any simple suggestions?

Monokne

I have Peacock since I think December, just coincidentally (get it free through cable). It works with Express VPN all the time but that is the only one known to work - they do try and block VPN's in general.

If you don't want to use a VPN long term, it is $10 everywhere else in the world so just use a VPN to sign up from another country and renew it thereafter.

Itssoeasy

Pentecost wrote: »

What are those that were still on US subs doing? I'm not sure I really use it enough to be bothered paying 13 quid each month and Mania is not really grabbing me either. I'm not really motivated enough for a load of tricking about with VPNs and hacks that may or may not work. Anyone got any simple suggestions?

My country is set to Ireland so nothing unless I have to. I’m being charged near 11 euro now.

Agent Coulson

The search function is atrocious on Peacock.

PPV's are called seasons i.e WM 1 is called season 1 episode 1. WM 2 is called season 2 episode 1 etc.

RAW episodes only start in 2008 from what I can see.

Pentecost

Yeah I think if I keep it at all I'll pay the extra and get the international version.

Itssoeasy

Pentecost wrote: »

Yeah I think if I keep it at all I'll pay the extra and get the international version.

But since 2015 there’s just one version spread over the world. They are closing one part but us in Ireland should be fine.

Ohmeha

Agent Coulson wrote: »

The search function is atrocious on Peacock.

PPV's are called seasons i.e WM 1 is called season 1 episode 1. WM 2 is called season 2 episode 1 etc.

RAW episodes only start in 2008 from what I can see.

Going to be interesting to see the level of backlash because adopting the same difficult template navigation from Peacock is a huge downgrade. Stream quality also not as sharp

I'll put up with it since I had a Peacock sub anyway which is working out about €4.30 per month