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Barrios also put over the importance of social media and how important it is to the company's brand presence. My take has always been that it's great to create that kind of awareness. The key is to monetize it. If they can, it's all worthwhile.
Q and A time! Please, someone ask good questions about the creative process. PLEASE!
The first questioner wasn't listening to George because he asked about The Network. Barrios talked about the different formats that they could use and he said that they all have their plusses and minuses, and that's it. George than talked about why WWE.com is doing better than it has. He correctly said that they have done better with social media than the website and they need to work on that. George talked about money that they will spend on programming for the network. From the programming end, Legends House has taken up 70% of the money. That is a lot to spend on one show.
They were asked about the increased revenue and how they got there. They already had said that charging an extra 10 bucks for HD was a big part of it. George reiterated it here. Paying that extra 10 bucks for HD has helped a lot.
George admitted that they were a little behind with the Smackdown brand and that pulled down the overall attendance numbers. Please, someone follow up and ask Vince why the brand is behind. PLEASE?
Yes, someone asked my question. Is the social media being monetized? Vince said that it's extra. "There is an insatiable thirst for the genre, and we are the genre". Really? Why didn't Superstars succeed on WGN then Vince? Why is the Smackdown brand hurting overall attendance? It seems like people are being satiated to me. Vince basically said that it's hard to monetize the social media now but it will come in time. He said some places, like the UK, are maximized on their budgets but when the new budgets are being calculated, they can pay for the third hour of Raw and the new ION show.
They were asked what their ownership percentage in Tout was and George said nope, we ain't saying buster. But, it will be accounted for using the cost method, which implies ownership. So far, Vince has said very little. It's been mostly George.
George was asked about Superstars and NXT. They are still foreign only shows. He talked about how NXT has been moved to Full Sail University. That's nice George, but are you making money on them in the US he was asked. Uh no was the answer.
He was asked about the content for the network and George said that he thinks they have some compelling content, like Legends House. They are banking on that show being a hit. If it's a bomb, it won't be good for the network. They also have a new series called The Monday Night Wars and a big part of that is the business battle between Vince McMahon and Ted Turner. You know, the battle that Turner never knew he was a part of.
The guy asking took them to task about not being clear on the network and said it's hurting the value of the stock. Vince reiterated he feels he will have more to announce on the next call. He better because this thing has indeed gone on too long and it has hurt the stock. A lot of people are steering clear of the stock because they feel the network will be a colossal money pit.
They were asked about changing their name to just WWE, so they could branch out into other areas of entertainment. So where is it? Vince got a bit ticked saying that they could do any kind of entertainment, they do more than Disney. He said that Raw and Smackdown were variety shows. "Sure, there's wrestling in the ring" but it's more than that. OY!!!!! Yeah, if we could only get rid of that damn ring, we would have even more great variety for you people! Damn, Vince's statement there said it all folks. He also talked about the successful Tough Enough, you know the one that was such a success we never got another season. In essence, all of the stuff he pointed out was wrestling related, which was what the guy was saying!
Last question. Vince was asked about creative. Finally. He was asked about the content being a bit edgier. Vince said it's an "evolvement". He said that the writing of the shows is "considerably better". I guess he means from the variety aspect. He said that they will stay PG because it opens up more business opportunities but they will do a little more stretching. He was asked if they took it a little too much to the G on Mondays he Vince said that was fair. Let's hope he was serious there.
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