Few Americans consider professional wrestling to be one of the more forward-thinking enterprises in the world of sports and entertainment.
Ever since the often-ridiculed sport achieved some semblance of mainstream popularity within our country’s culture, the same on-show narratives have been repeatedly employed. I can already tell you three things that will happen in next week’s Monday Night Raw. Someone will be either hit with a steel chair or put through a table; the referee will be beat up almost to the point of unconsciousness, but will somehow miraculously recover to proclaim a match’s winner; and the foreign wrestlers, for some reason, will always be portrayed as villains.
Although the quality of professional wrestling certainly has subsided since the halcyon days of Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock, the sport’s fans, and the general public, may have a new reason to pay attention. World Wrestling Entertainment has introduced an innovation that could change the future of television, especially with regards to our other beloved professional sports.
Launched this past February, the WWE Network is a subscriptions-based service that offers access to a plethora of on-demand programming options for $9.99 a month. Along with weekly shows and documentaries, access to the company’s video library, subscribers can watch the company’s previously overpriced monthly pay-per-view events. Even the wrestling equivalent of the Super Bowl, WrestleMania, is available for no additional charge. This model allows WWE to cut out middlemen in regards to content distribution, whether that be the cable companies or pay-per-view providers, and charge a direct fee that feeds only WWE’s coffers.
For many die-hard wrestling fans, this should be a deal that’s almost too good to be true. Unfortunately for WWE, if something seems too good to be true, it probably is. Nine months into the network’s launch, the company has yet to meet the optimal number of subscribers to break even on its substantial investment. And while many might not care about the network’s success, it would be unwise for sports fans to dismiss it as an extraneous, otherworldly project. In fact, if you’re a sports fan, you might have a vested interest in this business model, as it could be the future of sports media.
As the advent of Internet-based services, such as Netflix and Amazon Prime, continues, fewer people are watching their favorite TV shows live, opting instead for the convenience of on-demand options. So far, the only facet of television that has been immune to this has been sporting events, due to their live programming. And as anyone who’s ever recorded a game will tell you, trying to avoid the score before you watch is a nightmare. Many people, like myself, probably watch only a quarter of the channels in their respective cable packages. Essentially, I only need my respective sports channels, such as ESPN, TNT, TBS, and Fox Sports, to name a few.
But what if the NBA were to forego its deal with cable networks, who reap enormous advertising revenue off of televising professional basketball games, and create its own online subscription service with a monthly fee? A service where fans can access original programming, as well as the NBA’s video library, with every NBA game ever played? Throw in access to NBA League Pass, which gives fans the ability to watch every NBA game, for no extra charge and you’ve got yourself one of the sweetest deals in sports history.
Implementing this sort of package for fans of any and all professional teams would be a win-win for all except broadcast companies, as fans wouldn’t have to pay for channels they don’t want and the leagues could reap the benefits of the direct subscription fees as well as the potential advertising bonanza that would ensue. How many sports fans wouldn’t be willing to pay a fee within the range of $5-15 a month to enjoy access to these privileges?
The future of television is unfolding in WWE. The question is, to paraphrase one of the Rock’s many noteworthy catchphrases, can other professional sports smell what WWE is cooking?
