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QUICK THOUGHTS ON WWE'S NETWORK PRESENTATION AND THE NETWORK ITSELF

By Dave Scherer on 2014-01-08 22:54:23

I will be doing a hotline tomorrow with Mike talking in-depth about tonight's WWE presentation but here are my quick thoughts on what is a truly groundbreaking day in the industry.

*The thing is a steal at $9.99 a month, even with the six month commitment.  I buy every PPV so I am now in the black with this thing.  Having access to all of the other content?  That is all found money to me.  I will gladly watch on my 17 inch laptop and be happy to do so (and yes, I know I can hook my laptop up to my TV via an HDMI cable).  I am also happy to not have to deal with cable company miscues (provided WWE can deliver on their end).  Them making a point of being able to start from the beginning of a PPV if you come in a few minutes late is awesome as well.

*I love the way they are introducing it.  It may cost them money in the short term to give away WrestleMania as part of the package, but if they hook people in the first six months over the long haul it will be a positive, and they don't have to settle for 40% of the PPV revenue any longer.

*Bandwidth is cheap so costs will not be ridiculous from the production and airing side.  This is also a great model to put in place if they are ever have to stream all of their own content.  They don't want to do that since rights fees are massive, but it never hurts to have a fallback position.

*Stephanie McMahon-Levesque totally gets it.  She knows how to conduct a presentation.  She did a great job.

*The content that will be available from day one is truly awesome. There is so much to watch that for 10 bucks a month, even fans that don't watch the current product can justify the payment every month.

*WWE has obviously watched how the Hulu/Netflix model works and they are ready to monetize it.  I have nothing but respect for them being proactive and doing all that they can to be ahead of the curver here.

*All in all, if you have high speed internet and are a fan of the business, I can't see how you don't buy this thing.

*Going in this felt like a big, WrestleMania kind of day and they met my expectations.  Kudos to WWE for that.

That's all for now.  Back at you tomorrow with Mike.

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