How much is WWE actually losing?

By Scott Keith on 21 December 2014

Hey Scott,

So WWE pay-per-views went from $44.95 to $9.99. On the surface that looks like a huge drop and a lot of money lost. However, didn't WWE only see a small percentage of that $44.95 anyway? I seem to remember reading somewhere that inDemand got 50% of that right off the bat and then the cable/satellite company got a percentage of the remaining balance? Maybe they only ended up with $9.99 from that PPV buy? Any info on this?

They made a large percentage on it, basically a 50/50 split with the cable companies. They are losing a TON of money by killing off the PPV business model. If they can get Network subscriptions up to the magic million mark it will level off the losses again, but there's a lot to be said for the way they blindsided cable companies with this whole thing and basically sabotaged any further relationships they might have if the Network doesn't work out. And really, even just Wrestlemania and the Rumble staying on traditional PPV would probably put them well above break-even again next year and I bet no one would have had a problem buying those shows and getting the rest on the Network. I think it was just a bad move all around to do it that way.