Guest FeArHaVoC Posted February 26, 2003 Report Posted February 26, 2003 WWE Conference Call Notes WWE held their third quarter conference call today. Linda McMahon (CEO) and Frank Serpe (CFO) handled did the majority of the talking. Below are the highlights: - Talked about closing the World and how it just wasn't profitable to keep it running. - Said that WWE's "key drivers" are still soft, but that they are happy with the brand extension. Said that ratings and live attendance are slowly turning around. - Talked about the increase in international business and the upcoming tour of South Africa. - WWE Films is working on a "big project." McMahon said it is an animated project for TV, and they are working on it with their toy licensee partners. They hope to have the show on the air by 2004. - The World was headed towards a $9 million loss this year. - They went through the financial statement. QUESTIONS FROM THE INVESTORS: - About cutting costs, they said they are always looking at ways to run their business as efficient as possible. - Said they are closing to buying two new tape libraries and will add them to video/DVD and TV. These libraries are likely ECW and AWA. - WWE's animated TV show will be a mix of traditional anime as well as Korean animation to provide very delated facial expressions. The cartoon will feature WWE characters, as well as new characters. WWE is very excited about it. - When asked about the Rock's future, McMahon said he will be "in and out" of WWE storylines and that he put over new talent this past Monday. - Said that WWE plans to "test the waters" regarding a PPV split this year. Their goal is to increase the amount of yearly PPVs. - Someone pointed out that WCW PPVs failed due to them packing their stars on big shows and making it to where nobody bought the other shows. Linda responded by stressing that they are more creative than WCW. - WWE will be getting a producers fee for the Girls Gone Wild PPV. Linda said the PPV is March 16th. It is actually March 13th. - Linda said she could not confirm any PPV buyrates. - Said both RAW and Smackdown have an average 3.4 rating, but that Smackdown is a broadcast rating and thus has a bigger audience. - Said that WWE always keeps a lot of cash on hand incase of an attractive acquisition, but that nothing has come along recently. - WWE has no plans to buy back any of their shares. - Said that the house show business is showing signs of turning around and things look good for the future. - WWE wants to pull 850,000 buys for WrestleMania. - A caller asked about Heyman being removed from the writing team. Linda dodged the question by saying he is still a valuable member of the team and will serve as consultant Source: 411Wrestling.com What the Hell? Is this gonna be like a WWE Cartoon show on Saturdays or something?
Guest HartFan86 Posted February 26, 2003 Report Posted February 26, 2003 Said they are closing to buying two new tape libraries and will add them to video/DVD and TV. These libraries are likely ECW and AWA. K, then why the FUCK haven't they realeased WCW footage yet.
Guest Mad Dog Posted February 26, 2003 Report Posted February 26, 2003 Funny how she completely backtracks whenever someone brings up them making a mistake that WCW did. And how are they more creative? I don't remember WCW screwing up the nWo angle when it wrote itself.
Guest Kotzenjunge Posted February 26, 2003 Report Posted February 26, 2003 Looks like one smark got through with the Heyman question. And I just LOOOOOOVE how they're saying they aren't in a WCW-like spiral, and using as proof the stuff that got them into this fix in the form of "being more creative."
Guest The Tino Standard Posted February 26, 2003 Report Posted February 26, 2003 We are getting closer and closer to an all-wrestling channel. I mean, if you can have a golf channel and a video game channel on cable, then producing a wrestling channel should be no trouble at all with the tape libraries of 4 wrestling companies. That's a LOT of tape.
Guest Smell the ratings!!! Posted February 26, 2003 Report Posted February 26, 2003 Their goal is to increase the amount of yearly PPVs.
Guest FeArHaVoC Posted February 26, 2003 Report Posted February 26, 2003 - Said both RAW and Smackdown have an average 3.4 rating, but that Smackdown is a broadcast rating and thus has a bigger audience. Um, I thought More House Holds get Raw then Smackdown? Isn't that what she said when they first started the Brand Spits and Raw was getting higher ratings?
Guest HartFan86 Posted February 26, 2003 Report Posted February 26, 2003 So she refused to answer the question about necrophlia, WWE turning into WCW, and Heyman getting demoted from the writing team. Color me not surprised.
Guest Renegade Posted February 26, 2003 Report Posted February 26, 2003 WWE cartoon? *Has 80s flashback*
Guest Sturgis Posted February 26, 2003 Report Posted February 26, 2003 We are getting closer and closer to an all-wrestling channel. I mean, if you can have a golf channel and a video game channel on cable, then producing a wrestling channel should be no trouble at all with the tape libraries of 4 wrestling companies. That's a LOT of tape. Do you really want to see 24 hours pf HHH. Vince will just fill it up with old WWF stuff, recap shows, and blurrs. Anyways those tapes will be just filler on DVD's and Confedential and Tributes to those decesed nothing more nothing less.
Guest Mad Dog Posted February 26, 2003 Report Posted February 26, 2003 WWE Conference Calls = Comedy Gold
Guest teke184 Posted February 26, 2003 Report Posted February 26, 2003 - Said both RAW and Smackdown have an average 3.4 rating, but that Smackdown is a broadcast rating and thus has a bigger audience. Um, I thought More House Holds get Raw then Smackdown? Isn't that what she said when they first started the Brand Spits and Raw was getting higher ratings? I think the way this works is that more households (30+ million cable subscribers) get TNN while X number of markets get UPN. UPN probably gets less households than TNN BUT, due to the way broadcast TV ratings are calculated vs. cable ratings, Smackdown is seen more people on average. I'm sure someone can dig up the exact numbers but I think a rough guestimate of the way they work out is that a 3.4 on Smackdown is equal to about a 4.1 or 4.2 for RAW. (That's based off the assumption that a broadcast rating point is worth 1 million viewers while a cable ratings point is closer to 800,000 viewers)
Guest Kahran Ramsus Posted February 26, 2003 Report Posted February 26, 2003 - Said both RAW and Smackdown have an average 3.4 rating, but that Smackdown is a broadcast rating and thus has a bigger audience. Um, I thought More House Holds get Raw then Smackdown? Isn't that what she said when they first started the Brand Spits and Raw was getting higher ratings? No, Smackdown is in more homes than RAW.
Guest HartFan86 Posted February 26, 2003 Report Posted February 26, 2003 UPN = You don't have to pay to get. TNN = You have to pay. If that makes sense.
Guest JMA Posted February 26, 2003 Report Posted February 26, 2003 Ugh. A new WWE cartoon? This will surely be wrestle crap material.
Guest BoboBrazil Posted February 26, 2003 Report Posted February 26, 2003 I wonder if the cartoon will be of the more mature audience type like South Park or if it will be aimed at kids.
Guest oldschoolwrestling Posted February 26, 2003 Report Posted February 26, 2003 Ugh. A new WWE cartoon? This will surely be wrestle crap material. HHH's Rock & Wrestling
Guest Mad Dog Posted February 26, 2003 Report Posted February 26, 2003 Most likely aimed at kids. It'll be the HHH Power Hour. Watch as HHH conquers the universe.
Guest notJames Posted February 26, 2003 Report Posted February 26, 2003 We already see that on RAW...
Guest El Satanico Posted February 26, 2003 Report Posted February 26, 2003 - WWE's animated TV show will be a mix of traditional anime as well as Korean animation to provide very delated facial expressions. The cartoon will feature WWE characters, as well as new characters. WWE is very excited about it. A WWe anime based cartoon? That actually sounds interesting. I'll watch it at least once just to see how much anime influence it has. Also...what the hell is korean animation. Yes i know it's "animation made in korea", but I never knew korean animation was a certian style.
JasonX Posted February 26, 2003 Report Posted February 26, 2003 - WWE's animated TV show will be a mix of traditional anime as well as Korean animation to provide very delated facial expressions. The cartoon will feature WWE characters, as well as new characters. WWE is very excited about it. A WWe anime based cartoon? That actually sounds interesting. I'll watch it at least once just to see how much anime influence it has. Also...what the hell is korean animation. Yes i know it's "animation made in korea", but I never knew korean animation was a certian style. "Korean Animation" is basically a term used by animation studios when they want to do a cartoon that is stylisticly the same as Japanese Anime. The term came about with during the US run of Voltron, as the company that owned the US rights to Voltron wanted to get more episodes of the Lion Voltron team and asked the company that owned the Japanese rights to the series to make new ones for them. The Japanese company, instead of using their own resouces to make the new episodes, subcontracted a Korean Animation studio to do it for them in the same style of the Lion Voltron series
Guest TheArchiteck Posted February 26, 2003 Report Posted February 26, 2003 I'll check out the cartoon...even though I lost interest in anime and other animated series (except the Fox 3). Isn't there a wrestling cartoon about luchadores and such? Is that one real kiddy?
Guest BoboBrazil Posted February 26, 2003 Report Posted February 26, 2003 Here is some more from wrestlingobserver.com: --Pretty quiet investors conference today hosted by Tom Gibbons of WWE investor relations, Frank Serpe, the acting CFO, and Linda McMahon. The numbers were all released yesterday and they just went over them quickly without a lot of comments other than the usual enthusiasm that business is about to turn around. Linda said she's very excited with how the brand extension is working out. There was a lot of emphasis placed on international business, which she said was ahead of projections and talked about upcoming house shows in Taiwan, Thailand as well as Vienna, Austria and Milan, Italy. She talked heavily about the first project from WWE Films, which will be an animated cartoon they hope to have on the air in mid-2004 which will use both WWE wrestlers as characters as well as create new characters they can merchandise. Other things talked about were continual cost-cutting and running a more efficient front office and that there are no current plans to get involved in any large expense ventures. She said they were close to finalizing deals for two tape libraries (AWA & ECW) and would make the product available on video-on-demand. The answers to questions should kill rumors both that they are attempting to buy back stock and go private (she said there was no plans to buy back any stock, let alone all stock), or starting a wrestling channel (because there are no major money projects on the horizon). The most interesting aspect of the discussion was the total downplaying of the talent and complete lack of discussion about creative. Neither Rock, Austin or Hogan's names were even mentioned until brought up in the Q&A. When Roger Schaeffer (I believe that's the name), who was the guy who put Linda on the spot last time, congratulated her on her daughter's engagement, the air went quiet as if everyone was expecting something next that never happened. He brought up Austin and Rock and how long they were going to be around. Linda didn't answer the questions, just saying Austin was a popular character and almost tried to downplay his return. She praised Rock, commenting that on TV Monday he made a new star because everyone expected him to win the Battle Royal and he didn't, but she never mentioned Booker T's name (the caller actually said Rock created two stars in Booker T and Hurricane--call me in two weeks on Hurricane and six weeks on Booker and we'll see if that's the case). She confirmed the split brand PPVs but didn't go into detail other than they hope to do more than 12 PPV shows (she said 13 or 14) in 2004. When asked about Paul Heyman no longer being head writer on Smackdown, she confirmed the story, but said it's different looking from the outside than being on the inside. She said Heyman was a great on-air talent and would be utilized more effectively concentrating on that and being a consultant on ideas for both shows.
Guest j.o.b. squad Posted February 26, 2003 Report Posted February 26, 2003 ::starts playing funeral march::
Guest Mad Dog Posted February 26, 2003 Report Posted February 26, 2003 Man you gotta love the guy that keeps ambushing Linda with actually facts at these meetings.
Guest creativename Posted February 26, 2003 Report Posted February 26, 2003 - WWE wants to pull 850,000 buys for WrestleMania. Isn't that the exact number they pulled last year? There's no way in hell they can match that, no matter what they have on the card--you can't have 20%+ business increases in a month. I'd expect it to get maybe 650,000 or so this year...850,000 HA, no way.
Guest teke184 Posted February 26, 2003 Report Posted February 26, 2003 I wish he'd made some crack about how there was "nothing serious" between Trips and Steph the LAST time they had a meeting.
Guest teke184 Posted February 26, 2003 Report Posted February 26, 2003 Wrestlemania is always a big draw... unless you put Diesel, Sid, or Undertaker on top. With Rock-Austin, Vince-Hogan, Angle-Lesnar, and a few other big matches on the card, they should get somewhere in the neighborhood of 700,000+ buys. Hell, if the product is showing REAL life, unlike what it did last year, they may even top the 850,000 target. This WOULD require they not screw anything up, so you know they won't even be close.
Guest Jobber of the Week Posted February 26, 2003 Report Posted February 26, 2003 Looks like one smark got through with the Heyman question. You know, you don't necessarily qualify as a smark if you know the URL for 1wrestling. And I don't see how she dodged the question. Through her answer she admitted that they removed him from the writing team.
Guest Space_Cowboy Posted February 26, 2003 Report Posted February 26, 2003 Not long until we can get necrophilia, HLA and Kiss My Ass Clubs in cartoon form, that'll be fun.
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