WWE reports revenue of $161 M for 4Q 2015, a 15% increase from 2014. + Dana's comment from 2014

[RoscoeRufus]

WWE has a fanbase far bigger & more dedicated than the UFC at this point. Network aside, they're moving enough merchandise to eat very well without trying to lock in 'casuals' with gimmick fights & overvalued prospect hype.

in my opinion, it's not even a close race.

 

[FrankieNYC]

It will be a long time, but it'll happen. Bellator is a legit run business that has some great talent. It's not Pride being run by gangsters. It's on American television and they allow fighters to have sponsers. The ufc still offers better opportunity to champions, but the scales are not so one sided like it used to be.

Bellator is not even in the same conversation as UFC.
They are inexpensive programming for a network (Spike) that is currently in trouble (they have been downgraded and taken off several cable companies).
Until we see any sign that Viacom wants to make a run at Zuffa, there is zero chance.
Coker himself came out last week and said they have to be very choosy what fighters they go after.

 

[FrankieNYC]

WWE has a fanbase far bigger & more dedicated than the UFC at this point. Network aside, they're moving enough merchandise to eat very well without trying to lock in 'casuals' with gimmick fights & overvalued prospect hype.

in my opinion, it's not even a close race.

Yet UFC makes more money!

 

[Meathead Jock]

The WWE Network combined with winning tickets to an event turned me into a fan again after having not watched for 10 years. I'm glad to see the Network doing much better this year, it was a very rough first year but it looks like they are starting to see some benefits.

 

[SleepyBoy]

The average person goes oh shit this is great, I want to watch. Oh, wait, I need to pay that much? Nah, I'll not get invested in something I need to pay so much for, I'll stick to football cause it's free and my friends watch it too. Only hardcore fans really stay watching.

This 100%. Obviously I am an OG longtime UFC fan and I can't tell you how many friends I have seen come and go as UFC fans because it's just too much money and too much work to be invested in.

FFS, we can't even get same day highlights of the most important event. I can see Baseball, basketball, and football highlights of all the events for free right after it happened.

I don't really drink anymore so I am not going to go to a bar and spend a ton of money on crappy food and drink to watch the event with a bunch of retarded strangers..Also I am in my mid 30's, my friends have lives and can't be bothered with investing so much money and energy in following a sport that puts up a pay/effort barrier every step of the way.

I already introduced all my friends to UFC and they said it's cool and they really like it, but the UFC just requires too much from them to be dedicated hardcore fans.

 

[FrankieNYC]

UFC has more free fights than ever before
I get everyone point that if there was no PPV, it would be easier to get fans, but they (UFC) are doing quite well and like I said, it is easier now than ever to see free fights.

 

[Toco]

Yea I think it makes sense, especially in the past. I'm just saying realistically they should be happy people steal their shows. They can't honestly expect everyone to pay every month. If their was some magical way to stop torrents the ufc's numbers would tank and they'd go back to the dark ages of only hardcore fans and small shows. The people who steal will at least sometimes buy a good card. If it was impossible to steal the ufc's fanbase would plummet. I think it's odd to force your customer into that position. It's like when music was easier to download for free then to pay. Eventually they made the content just as easy to pay for, and at a decent price, and now a lot of people who would steal everything now just pay for it.

I just want to be able to turn on a channel one day, and watch the big show without all the hassle. Or I'd be ok with paying a subscription like the wwe does. Like 30 a month or something. No chance am I going to pay for fox, fight pass, pay per views all separately. I'll just download that shit much quicker as a torrent and it's all in one place.

still theyre making a lot of money, so why change it. and its still easy as fuck to download a torrent of a ufc event the day after and watch it

the day ppv starts to die (ie no stars anymore) or fox or another company offers big money for the ppvs, it will change

 

[TheRassler]

There are only a handful of UFC PPV's each year that are actually worth $60. Due to the history of boring fighters in the UFC, those cards should be valued at $10 (at best). If you are gonna charge us, the fans, $60 per PPV, at least take care of your fighters and pay them more than what they are getting paid now (except for the point fighters/boring blankets, those guys need to be cut after 2-3 strikes).

 

[RoscoeRufus]

Yet UFC makes more money!

well, this was fun until the shill showed up...

 

[jsbx45]

I'm sure many of the folks wanting lower PPV prices are the same folks screaming about low UFC fighter pay. If the fighters are going to get paid then the parent company needs to get paid too. That's just how it is. The UFC does try to make the PPV's top tier events, which is why UFC 196 became a UFC fight night instead. Easy to bash the UFC and Dana, but folks don't understand that owning a business doesn't mean you just pull the truck up and start shoveling money in. When you zoom out, and take a look at the big picture, understand the ENORMOUS risk Zuffa took buying the UFC and simply keeping it in existence. These guys brought mainstream MMA to you in the first place it's not a Constitutional right...

 

[FrankieNYC]

I'm sure many of the folks wanting lower PPV prices are the same folks screaming about low UFC fighter pay. If the fighters are going to get paid then the parent company needs to get paid too. That's just how it is. The UFC does try to make the PPV's top tier events, which is why UFC 196 became a UFC fight night instead. Easy to bash the UFC and Dana, but folks don't understand that owning a business doesn't mean you just pull the truck up and start shoveling money in. When you zoom out, and take a look at the big picture, understand the ENORMOUS risk Zuffa took buying the UFC and simply keeping it in existence. These guys brought mainstream MMA to you in the first place it's not a Constitutional right...

TBF, Zuffa can pay more to fighters though.
They are not the devil some make them out to be, but there is a lot to shit on them about too.

 

[robjenkins2]

WWE is a terrible product, they haven't made a new star in over a decade and they control their product 100%.

 

[supra57]

Dana in 2014 on Vince's decision to give all PPVs for free on the online WWE Network: "When I look at his model and he's basically taking everything in and devalued it. Saying everything we do is worth $10. That doesn't make sense to me"

Vince McMahon GOAT promoter?

sources:
http://www.foxsports.com/ufc/story/wwe-network-devalues-product-ufc-will-not-follow-suit-012714
http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/02/10/will-wwes-4q-earnings-body-slam-expectations.html

Barnett even looked scared there and then went on to piss hot so he didnt have to fight Fedor

 

[KantoTerror]

It is but UFC did the math, $60 is the sweet spot where they can generate the most $. That's not gonna change until people stop buying PPVs.

How were they able to come up with that number? That is not the sweet spot that would generate them $. That's what they thought is the sweet spot.

 

[SylarNY]

Oh my god, people thinking that UFC should go the route of the WWE have no idea what they are talking about. The truth of the matter is that people still very much buy UFC PPV's and if they were to turn Fight Pass into the Network and show PPV's (even if they raised the price to $20), they would lose out on so much money.

Look at the numbers for 2015. The UFC did amazing this year on PPV with 7 out of their 13 PPVs (UFC 182-194) doing over 600,000 buys. Two of those PPV's (193 and 194) pulled in over a million buys EACH. The other 6 PPVs ranged from 115,000 to 375,000 buys.

Now look at the WWE PPV buys. The network was launched in February 2014. I'll start at WrestleMania 30 (April 2014), since that is around the time the Network started gaining steam. WrestleMania 30, the biggest show of the year, did 690,000 buys (plus roughly 600,000 subscribers to the Network).

The prior month PPV (February 14, around the start of the network) had 183,000 buys.

January 14 (the Royal Rumble, one of the biggest shows of the year and this is before the Network came out), pulled in 467,000 buys.

From January 2013 through December 2013, the WWE only had 3 of their 12 PPV events come in over 250,000 buys. Only 2 of those events came in over 498,000 buys (the Royal Rumble 2013 498,000 and WrestleMania 29, 1,104,000 buys).

The WWE PPV model was a sinking ship. Their PPV buy rates plummeted over the years. The year prior to the network, all but 2 of their events drew the worst numbers that the UFC pulled in this year.

 

[freaky]

The ufc model is absurd. They expect fans to spend thousands of dollars a year to see all the fights. It's pretty absurd. It's not worth that much. At least Vince let's his fans have the opportunity to pay. The ufc forces their fans to steal the content or piss away thousands. If it was one solid card a month, maybe. But it's multiple ppv's with sometimes only one good fight. I'll pass paying $60 for that. And yes I know I sound poor.

It's really hard for younger people to get into. Without constantly stealing the product you can't keep up. It's not like football where you can every week turn a channel on and relax. The ufc forces you to pay so much. I would love askimg my nephews hey did you see the fight? But I know they don't have the money to follow the sport.

WWE gets money from television and merchandise.
UFC gets money from Reebok and PPV. They also don't show as much television compared to WWE. So their main income is from PPV. They will lose a lot of money if they do it like WWE unless they start showing them all on FOX for free 3x a week.

 

[FrankieNYC]

WWE gets money from television and merchandise.
UFC gets money from Reebok and PPV. They also don't show as much television compared to WWE. So their main income is from PPV. They will lose a lot of money if they do it like WWE unless they start showing them all on FOX for free 3x a week.

The $$$ UFC gets from Reebok doesn't tilt the scale at all.
Also UFC makes a shitload from TV, they are a world wide company.
Most companies do not have PPV and pay Zuffa for the rights/
PPV is about 30% of their revenue.
It is a huge amount, but to say Zuffa is not getting money from TV ($hundreds of millions) but are getting it from Reebok (a few million) is ridiculous!

 

[freaky]

The $$$ UFC gets from Reebok doesn't tilt the scale at all.
Also UFC makes a shitload from TV, they are a world wide company.
Most companies do not have PPV and pay Zuffa for the rights/
PPV is about 30% of their revenue.
It is a huge amount, but to say Zuffa is not getting money from TV ($hundreds of millions) but are getting it from Reebok (a few million) is ridiculous!

Sorry I mentioned Reebok. But you totally missed the point. My point is that they get a huge lump of their income from PPV. If they get rid of PPV like that other guy said then their income will decrease unless they start showing weekly UFC shows like WWE which won't happen and will probably lose more interest.

 

[FrankieNYC]

Sorry I mentioned Reebok. But you totally missed the point. My point is that they get a huge lump of their income from PPV. If they get rid of PPV like that other guy said then their income will decrease unless they start showing weekly UFC shows like WWE which won't happen and will probably lose more interest.

How did I miss that point when I typed?

PPV is about 30% of their revenue.
It is a huge amount

 

[ClosetVitorFan]

I was given a 6 month subscription to fight pass for Christmas and it's pretty cool. But if they added ppvs for 20 dollars a month. I'd buy it without question. I think it's honestly it's a huge way for Zuffa to make money down the line. But as of now. If they can sell 60 dollar ppvs and still get a million buys from time to time. Why on earth would they offer their ppvs for cheaper? It's only until people stop buying them is when Dana and Co are even going to entertain a wwe network style of ppv distribution