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New WWE/SKY deal - no NXT and Superstars & PPVs £19.95


Charro!

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Some new details about Sky's deal with WWE are available now. From what I've read on the Sky WWE forum:

 

Royal Rumble will be £19.95 and I'm assuming the rest of the PPV's will be too (there will be no 'free' events on Sky next year)

No more WWE Bottom Line, WWE Afterburn, WWE NXT & WWE Superstars in 2015 on Sky 1/Sky Sports (UPDATE: a 1 hour edit of Raw will replace Superstars on Sky 1)

WWE Main Event will be on Thursday's and it will be the first time the show has aired on Sky Sports

Raw repeat will be cut from 2 hours down to 1, also a 1 hour version of SmackDown!

Still no UK announcement for the WWE Network and maybe Sky & WWE are holding back to maximize the profits made by Royal Rumble and the other PPV's. 

 

Not good news for UK WWE fans. I think Superstars & NXT are network exclusive programming now anyway, but it's a case of taking away a lot of programming and the 4/5 "free" PPV's and replacing them with...Main Event. Not cool on Sky's part, in comparison to Challenge where Impact! and the monthly TNA PPV's are on a free to air channel. Maybe Sky & WWE should have went for a similar deal that BT has with UFC where the PPV's are included, as I don't see many fans paying £20 each month for the events, which would equate to £239.40 per year. It's also not like wrestling is in a boom period where there's a huge demand. This whole thing could backfire on Sky & WWE, but anyway, roll on the UK version of the WWE Network !.

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They're taking everything off Sky 1? So the only way to watch WWE at all is going to be via Sports subscriptions (where WWE is on SS3, and you need to get 1 and 2 to qualify for getting 3, even if you don't want 1 & 2)?

 

Bugger that. Looks like I'm just watching TNA from next year week.

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Bugger that. Looks like I'm just watching TNA from next year week.

Christ, I know the "stiff upper lip" thing is a common stereotype of the English, but I didn't know you were masochists!

 

This is what the Network in the UK was torpedo'd for?

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Deducting NXT for Main Event is a huge kick in the balls. As long as SKY still has Football I'll continue to give Murdoch my money but they're not helping themselves in the long run with the Network being easily accessible and no doubt all the shows will be on there sooner or later, at a faster rate than they are now. I guess Smackdown being chopped down to an hour makes sense considering it's usually watered down anyway and a glorified Raw recap show.

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IIRC, when Velocity became an internet only show, Sky Sports still kept airing it. Then it was the new ECW, which eventually 'evolved' into NXT. So in theory, Sky are replacing an 'internet only' show which is now a WWE network exclusive and to my knowledge, doesn't air on US TV. I do think they should have kept NXT & Superstars and maybe added some of the network content (like the Monday Night War, Rivalries, Legends House etc., or even older stuff like Nitro & old Raw's) to replace losing the 'free' events. All the recap shows aren't really necessary as most (apart from the live 3 hour Raw broadcast) turn up on the Sky Anytime service anyway. 

 

I also think Sky are losing some of the football too, I know they have lost the Champions League to BT for the 15/16 season and Sky have had to reduce the number of live Premiership games they show too, which BT have. I would have rather seen WWE go to BT as their coverage of the UFC is the direct US broadcasts, apart from the UK based Fight Nights. Plus I think they would show some of the fight pass only exclusive events too.

 

I don't know if Sky & WWE doing the £19.95 PPV events is like testing the waters to see if they sink or swim, but when the Network does eventually launch in the UK, hardly anyone will pay full price when they get an all-inclusive deal for the UK equivalent of $9.99 a month. It's over estimating the loyalty of the WWE fanbase when they are taking away content and expecting fans to pay more for less. One option Sky should do is add the PPV's a month or so later for 'free' for subscribers like they do for big Boxing PPV's which air a week or so later on Sky Sports. 

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Yeah, NXT & Vintage are the only two shows I really watch too. I don't know if Vintage is also going, as it wasn't on Sunday & isn't listed for next Sunday either like it usually is. Preferred when they used to show WWF Wrestling Challenge & then WCW Worldwide before it went to Vintage anyway. Also according to the Sky website, there is a 1 hour version of 'Raw' which is replacing Superstars now & will be airing on Sky 1 after all :rolleyes: on Saturday & Sunday mornings. Supposed it's not a bad decision to put their a highlighted version of their "premier" show on Sky One, but again, they could have kept NXT & Superstars and added more like I've said. I wonder though once the Network does launch, how many fans who subscribe exclusively for WWE only will dump their Sky subscriptions and sign up for the Network instead?. 

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That really sucks.  You'd think there'd be a push to at least keep NXT with how much it's grown.  It's like they're begging people to torrent the shows.

 

There's always services like Unblock Us that allows use of the Network anywhere, or Raw/SD on Hulu.

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Very disheartened to not get my NXT fix this week (and to add to that, XWT was down too, whatever that is) 

 

I have maybe bought 2 WWE PPV's on Sky Box Office in my life, and that was when I was younger and able to stay up til 3 or 4am to watch them live. 

 

I don't think a lot of people are going to pay £20 to watch pay-per-views, especially when they are between 1 and 5am (Depending on daylight savings..) - I certainly won't be. As the above poster said, i'll continue with my Sky subscriptions because of the football coverage, but when my next 12 month period comes around (Just started a new contract when I upgraded) I will be thinking about leaving, certainly. I'll miss watching Raw every week in hassle free-no download needed- HD, but that's a sacrifice i'll have to make.

 

 

TL;DR - They're REALLY testing the patience of the UK fans.

 

Next month will be a whole year since the Network launched over in the states. Too much stop-start announcements about our Network, the worst being advertising the network as much as five minutes away, and then pulling it with no explanation (STILL no official explanation)

 

I hate to be called an entitled kiddy, but man, there's MONEY on the table, WWE!

 

Uch, rant over.

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Don't worry, they fucked over most of Canada too by selling the network rights as television only, to a company that doesn't offer television service in half the country. WWE must have something against the Commonwealth.

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Don't worry, they fucked over most of Canada too by selling the network rights as television only, to a company that doesn't offer television service in half the country. WWE must have something against the Commonwealth.

Or the big cable companies in the UK and Canada want in on the gig and sweetened the deal for WWE. I wonder how much those shitbums Rogers paid Vince for this set-up...

 

I'm sticking with the US version with unblock us until they get that sorted. This international rollout of the network has been a farce.

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The latest announcement from WWE is that the WWE Network will launch in the UK and Ireland on January 19th, six days before the Royal Rumble.

 

The price points are £9.99 for the UK and 12.99 euros for Ireland. This is roughly one third more expensive than the US version however it does of course keep with the 9.99 price point internationally. Interestingly, it's probably the same rough price as the people who were using a VPN to access the network this whole time anyway, which makes us all suckers for not accessing it that way.

 

Lastly, it has been said it's the same version as the US get, which is a relief to me as i've heard rumours we were getting a streamlined version after all was said and done.

 

So if someone more clued up than me can answer, why have Sky put the price of their PPV's up with the knowledge (assumedly) that WWE were releasing the network for half the price of Sky's PPV price point?

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Good question and it doesn't make any sense unless people are luddites and can't figure out how to stream stuff. I mean Survivor Series did roughly the same PPV buys in 2014 than it did in 2013 and WWE was literally giving it away.

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Good question and it doesn't make any sense unless people are luddites and can't figure out how to stream stuff. I mean Survivor Series did roughly the same PPV buys in 2014 than it did in 2013 and WWE was literally giving it away.

 

100,000 Americans bought Survivor Series. Never underestimate the stupidity or lack of access to technology of the average person.

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Yeah I think they are raising it for the technophobe core who will have no choice to buy it, regardless of price. As we saw with SS there is an audience out there for that, may as well milk them for everything. A lot of places where I live have fibre optic now so most younger people should have no trouble with accessing the network.

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So if someone more clued up than me can answer, why have Sky put the price of their PPV's up with the knowledge (assumedly) that WWE were releasing the network for half the price of Sky's PPV price point?

 

My assumption on this, is that Sky apparently paid WWE three times what they did last time for exclusive rights. Therefore, they probably are charging more to off-set the amount of money they spent on WWE programming. I really don't know who is going to pay £19.95 for one PPV, when they can get everything for £9.99 per month. If there's trouble with watching the live event, from what I've read, they archive it almost right away, so it'll be on the Network for fans who want to watch it at a more convenient time. I'm wondering whether the Network servers will be able to withstand the amount of people signing up & watching at the same time. I don't know how the UK broadband infrastructure compares to other countries, but I think fibre optic broadband like Virgin Media would probably be fine with watching live events if you have a high speed connection. WWE will no doubt have to upgrade their servers and such too I'm assuming to be able to accept the incoming demand, otherwise it could bring the network down to a crawl. 

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100,000 Americans bought Survivor Series. Never underestimate the stupidity or lack of access to technology of the average person.

 

I wouldn't at all be surprised if a lot of them were people that got the network preview. Ordered the ppv thinking they wouldn't be charged.

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So if someone more clued up than me can answer, why have Sky put the price of their PPV's up with the knowledge (assumedly) that WWE were releasing the network for half the price of Sky's PPV price point?

 

My assumption on this, is that Sky apparently paid WWE three times what they did last time for exclusive rights. Therefore, they probably are charging more to off-set the amount of money they spent on WWE programming. I really don't know who is going to pay £19.95 for one PPV, when they can get everything for £9.99 per month. If there's trouble with watching the live event, from what I've read, they archive it almost right away, so it'll be on the Network for fans who want to watch it at a more convenient time. I'm wondering whether the Network servers will be able to withstand the amount of people signing up & watching at the same time. I don't know how the UK broadband infrastructure compares to other countries, but I think fibre optic broadband like Virgin Media would probably be fine with watching live events if you have a high speed connection. WWE will no doubt have to upgrade their servers and such too I'm assuming to be able to accept the incoming demand, otherwise it could bring the network down to a crawl. 

 

Virgin Media's cable service is available in such a tiny proportion of the country. I mean I know some parts of Glasgow have it but I've yet to actually find out where those parts are. And further north than Glasgow it pretty much doesn't exist. The cable infrastructure has been almost completely static for 15-20 years and Virgin Media have basically come out and stated repeatedly they have no interest in actually upgrading it.

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