Taboo Tuesday Buy Rate

[Enigma 0]

No matter how they may try to look at it, the two-PPVs-in-a-month experiment was a bust for WWE. In numbers released by the company, the 10/3 No Mercy PPV did about 190,000 buys while Taboo Tuesday did about 170,000 buys. These are the first two shows in company history to do less than 225,000 buys and say a lot about the state of WWE’s business. While WWE will still make money from the shows, it’s becoming pretty clear that there is a saturation point for WWE events and they have probably found it.

 

Credit: PWInsider/Dave Scherer

[Fökai 0]

190,000 buys + 170,000 buys = a successful month.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

The best thing to do would be to cut back on PPV's, so that there is less of a glut, and more buys will be garnered. Of course, this means Vince and co acknowledging that their idea of 14+ PPV's a year is wrong, so that won't happen.

[what 0]

190,000 buys + 170,000 buys = a successful month.

Exactly. And even without Taboo Tuesday a couple weeks later, I doubt No Mercy would've gotten more than 190,000 buys.

[Enigma 0]

190,000 buys + 170,000 buys = a successful month.

Are you not realizing that the overall PPV production cost is doubled due to doing two?

 

Basically, they put in the cost of two PPVs for a buy rate that equals one PPV.

 

How in the world can anyone call that a success?

[Prophet of Mike Zagurski 0]

I think they need more PPV's.

[razazteca 0]

So with more PPVs that means that more stars will be made right or does that mean HHH will be on 13 PPVs a year?

[2GOLD 0]

190,000 buys + 170,000 buys = a successful month.

Are you not realizing that the overall PPV production cost is doubled due to doing two?

 

Basically, they put in the cost of two PPVs for a buy rate that equals one PPV.

 

How in the world can anyone call that a success?

 

Cause in the WWE, ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN!

 

 

That is why this has to be considered a failure. They paid out double PPV salaries, double PPV production costs and they didn't get above 200,000 buys for either. They need to realize most people do not have the money for two WWE PPVs at 34.95 a pop.

 

I honestly think the two a months need to be sold at a reduced price. Maybe five or ten dollars less each.

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

The big problem with this is that it'll probably kill the Survivor Series buyrate as well.

[JoeDirt 0]

This isn't really surprising, but it's kind of funny that this show got the lowest buyrate in the history of the WWE. We're talking less than IYH 4 and IYH 5 in 1995, people.

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

It's only fitting that Triple H as champ would draw one of the worst buyrates ever followed closely by JBL.

[2GOLD 0]

They shouldn't have named their PPV after a day of porn. I'm sure some kids couldn't get mom and pop to order "Taboo Tuesday" since they probably thought sonny boy was trying to get some hardcore gangbang movie.

 

Yes, I'm serious. It was really poorly named.

[Lord of The Curry 0]

"It's because of the war and the election."

 

And yet they will follow this formula in January too.

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

I agree but it's typically WWF these days. They have a good name like Halloween Havok and dump it for something completely lame like Taboo Tuesday.

 

They could've probably added 70,000 buys with Halloween Havok and War Games as they main event.

[JoeDirt 0]

The WWE will say that the buyrate can be attributed to the Tuesday experiment, I guarantee it.

[Guest Tjhe CyNick]

The reason you could argue it was still successful is that as long as both shows turn a profit, you come out further ahead.

 

I think Ive heard that the break even point for PPV is about 100,000 buys, so even though the TT buyrate at about 165-170K is low, its still turning a profit, so they come further ahead then by just running one show.

 

But I do think they should seriously consider going back to one show per month, because as you add more shows you make each subsequent show seem less special and fewer people will order. At some point the numbers could get to a point where its no longer profitable to run PPVs, which would be death for the company.

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

Actually that's totally wrong. They came out either even or slighty behind. The combined buyrates would be 360,000 buys minus the 200,000 buys worth to break even by your math. So with a regular monthly buy they would've had 250,000 to 280,000 worth of buys. But the other thing you have to take into consideration is that the next PPV buyrate will most likely be lower because of the oversaturation. So if Survivor Series has a poor buyrate it's a failure.

[natey2k4 0]

Okay listen.

 

The regular WWE PPV in the last few years does approx 230 000 - 240 000 buys, right? so 130 000 - 140 000 of those buys would be profit.

260 buys aren't very normal for WWE nowadays, even if they only had one PPV.

 

Now 170 000 + 190 000 = 360 000 - 200 000 for break point leaves them with

 

160 000 buys profit, which is over 6 Million Dollars.

 

 

So look at it, WWE is making either close, or a bit more money then they would running One Per Per View a month.... AND ON TOP OF THAT...

 

DVD/VHS profits. Maybe not a big number of people will buy both, but garunteed some will just becuase they are collectors. Some may still only buy one, but in the long run its still going to turn a greater profit. DVD's cost hardly nothing to make so there not going to lose money (they will, but selling like 5 dvds will make up for that) by making more DVDS.

 

Plus WWE has all that video library crap, and are making BEST OF DvD's all over the place. So again they will make profit off all that. So as far as I can see, WWE is way better off now then they were 2 or 3 years ago.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

So as far as I can see, WWE is way better off now then they were 2 or 3 years ago.

Then I guess you don't keep up with their finances.

[JoeDirt 0]

Of course if the PPV numbers continue to drop because there are so many of them...

 

I mean honestly, at this rate how many buys will Armageddon and that RAW Puerto Rico PPV do? And will that reduce the number of buys the Rumble gets?

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

And again you ignore the fact that the last time they did this the following PPV had a horrible buyrate. The reason the average is down from 250k to 280k is because they've oversaturated the PPV market with crappy poorly built PPVs for the whole year. Anything that requires double the effort for barely any gain is bad for business.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

I mean honestly, at this rate how many buys will Armageddon and that RAW Puerto Rico PPV do? And will that reduce the number of buys the Rumble gets?

Armageddon: 195,000

Puerto Rican PPV: 165,000

Royal Rumble: 235,000

[Fökai 0]

So as far as I can see, WWE is way better off now then they were 2 or 3 years ago.

Then I guess you don't keep up with their finances.

Considering the XFL (2001-2002) and World (2002-2003) are off the books, in addition to Wrestlemania XX bringing nearly $30 million (shady on the figure) to the company, they're going to turn a higher profit than either year.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

So as far as I can see, WWE is way better off now then they were 2 or 3 years ago.

Then I guess you don't keep up with their finances.

Considering the XFL (2001-2002) and World (2002-2003) are off the books, in addition to Wrestlemania XX bringing nearly $30 million (shady on the figure) to the company, they're going to turn a higher profit than either year.

Just a shame that those were one-off occurances. Wrestling revenue is down.

[JoeDirt 0]

Does anyone know what 190,000 and 170,000 equal out to buyrate wise? (You know, like .30 or whatever)

 

Also, does this number include the people that buy it and watch on the internet?

[Fökai 0]

I mean honestly, at this rate how many buys will Armageddon and that RAW Puerto Rico PPV do? And will that reduce the number of buys the Rumble gets?

Armageddon: 195,000

Puerto Rican PPV: 165,000

Royal Rumble: 235,000

Armageddon will do MUCH WORSE, but Rumble should do 300,000 easy based on its name.

 

Also, does this number include the people that buy it and watch on the internet?

 

Yes, because although it's at a lower price, the WWE gets the same cut due to the pay-per-view providers taking their fees.

 

EDIT: I was under the assumption that a 1.0 was 400,000 buys, which is why I said the Rumble could garner 300,000 buys (2004 Rumble did a .98 on the 400,000 buys scale).

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

190,000 is about a 0.34.

 

If you think the Rumble will do "300,000 easy", you're in fantasy land. It might get close, but no way will it do 300,000.

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

Yeah, they're getting dangerously close to WCW 2000 and ECW buyrates.

[what 0]

The big problem with this is that it'll probably kill the Survivor Series buyrate as well.

Doubt it.

[JoeDirt 0]

190,000 is about a 0.34.

Apparently IYH #5 got a .30 buyrate. I don't know if that's different because it was back in 1995 so the numbers are different, or if IYH got around the amount Taboo Tuesday did. But that was the lowest bought WWF PPV in history coming in to 2004, I believe. International Incident in 1996, Armageddon 2003, IYH4, Buried Alive, and Ground Zero were also very low, in the .35 - .45 range.