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WWE Network: Someone finally gets it!

Madmic23

Madmic23

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
I know this really isn't a forum full of wrestling fans, but the WWE just made a pretty huge announcement at CES. The WWE Network!
Why should you care? Because this is a company that finally understands what people want. For $9.99 a month, they will be offering a 24/7 streaming channel with live content and shows. They will also have an on demand component utilizing their 100,000 hours of content. Think Netflix, but for wrestling.
They are totally cutting out the middleman. You don't need to subscribe to a channel with your cable or satellite provider, it's direct to the customer. The really big thing for wrestling fans is that the $9.99 price includes all 12 of the monthly WWE pay per views, which would cost over $600 to buy from the typical cable or satellite provider.
The WWE has an iOS app which Airplays to the AppleTV, but I'm hoping for them to get a dedicated AppleTV app. They will have one on the PS3/4, XBox 360 / One, Roku, iOS and Android.
This is going to be huge! The network launches in the US in February, but I have to wait until the end of 2014 for it to launch in Canada, as well as a bunch of other countries.
Hopefully other networks (looking at you HBO) will take notice of this and start offering content direct to consumers without the need for the cable package.
 
Thanks

Thanks for posting this. I totally missed this. Wonderful news for fans and good news for WWE/ it's also a great way to deal with piracy, which is massive with wrestling. I will be a subscriber.
 
Not really been a fan of WWE since my mid teens but this is a real game changer and I think in two years time we will only subscribe to networks in this way.
 
Madmic23 said:
I know this really isn't a forum full of wrestling fans, but the WWE just made a pretty huge announcement at CES. The WWE Network!
Why should you care? Because this is a company that finally understands what people want. For $9.99 a month, they will be offering a 24/7 streaming channel with live content and shows. They will also have an on demand component utilizing their 100,000 hours of content. Think Netflix, but for wrestling.
They are totally cutting out the middleman. You don't need to subscribe to a channel with your cable or satellite provider, it's direct to the customer. The really big thing for wrestling fans is that the $9.99 price includes all 12 of the monthly WWE pay per views, which would cost over $600 to buy from the typical cable or satellite provider.
The WWE has an iOS app which Airplays to the AppleTV, but I'm hoping for them to get a dedicated AppleTV app. They will have one on the PS3/4, XBox 360 / One, Roku, iOS and Android.
This is going to be huge! The network launches in the US in February, but I have to wait until the end of 2014 for it to launch in Canada, as well as a bunch of other countries.
Hopefully other networks (looking at you HBO) will take notice of this and start offering content direct to consumers without the need for the cable package.
Click to expand...

Don't hold your breath for HBO.... They are owned by Time Warner, a cable company.
 
2010mini said:
Don't hold your breath for HBO.... They are owned by Time Warner, a cable company.
Click to expand...

I know HBO is owned by Time Warner, but they have to be paying attention to this announcement. If this works out for WWE, and I'm sure it will, I could see a lot of other networks going the same way. Premium networks like sports and HBO could charge $10 a month, but smaller special interest channels could charge $1 to $3 a month. This is the cord cutters dream.

Sure, in the end you could end up paying the same amount as a cable bill with fewer channels, but people want to have the control of just paying for what they want. Not being forced into bundles and packages of 100 channels they never watch.
 
Yeah, WWE isn't my cup of tea, but I applaud this move, if only for its ability to prove (or disprove) the model of content providers moving away from the traditional cable/satellite model and going for full-bore individual subscription.
 
Does this mean all that crap won't be on the Syfy channel anymore and perhaps the Syfy channel will actually play Scifi....

Wishful thinking I know...
 
snarfquest said:
Does this mean all that crap won't be on the Syfy channel anymore and perhaps the Syfy channel will actually play Scifi....

Wishful thinking I know...
Click to expand...

Sorry, but it seems like part of the deal WWE has made with the networks is that they still get first run rights to RAW and Smackdown. It appears those shows won't air live on the WWE network, but a replay will air shortly after, probably the next day.

You're stuck with Smackdown on SyFy.
 
allthingsapple said:
Nice. Is the service just for US customers or will it be available in the UK & Europe too.
Click to expand...

It's US only to start, with plans to expand to Canada, the UK, and other countries by the end of the year. This is from the FAQ on their website:

"Beginning Monday, February 24, WWE Network will only be available in the United States. WWE Network is scheduled to launch in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong and the Nordics by the end of 2014/early 2015." FAQ
 
I hope the WWE Network is commercial free...if it isn't, I'll be disappointed, but getting all of the PPVs live for only $120 a year is a great deal.
 
Not a WWE fan but it would be nice if more channels did this.

I got fed up paying 160 a month because I want 2 channels in HD and have to get 400 other channels I didn't want, many in a language I didn't speak. So I got rid of all of them.
 
Apparantly, this is gonna have some awesome search/filter criteria too.

E.G. You can search by wrestler, by the year and even by the move performed.

So you could search for Stone Cold Steve Austin matches in 1998 where he performed the Stone Cold Stunner (as a random example.)

Pretty good metadata if this works!
 
roblawton said:
Apparantly, this is gonna have some awesome search/filter criteria too.

E.G. You can search by wrestler, by the year and even by the move performed.

So you could search for Stone Cold Steve Austin matches in 1998 where he performed the Stone Cold Stunner (as a random example.)

Pretty good metadata if this works!
Click to expand...

That must be the ultimate fan job.

"Sit in this room and watch thousands of matches and enter every detail in this spreadsheet. Oh, and we need it all done by Tuesday. Good luck."
 
dvdlovr24 said:
Hopefully the iOS app will support airplay until they add a channel on the Apple TV.
Click to expand...

The current WWE app support Airplay, so I'm pretty sure that will continue on. They said they are just going to provide an update to the current app to enable the network once it is available.
 
This is great news, even though I have no interest in WWE whatsoever. I hope the "channel" proves successful so other content providers will be willing to follow suit. MLB has always been pretty good (aside from local blackouts), and it seems that the NBA is moving that direction. Hopefully the NFL is just waiting for their current DirecTV contract to finish up so they can make a similar move.

If only ESPN didn't have a stranglehold on college sports.
 
I'm down. My daughter loves watching it and gets disappointed that we don't get the PPV's due to the cost. For $10/month I'll get it. Airplay until they get an Apple TV app. At the announcement they put WWE branded Apple TV's under all the press's chair as a hint that they will be getting it there sooner than later. They just said they have other partners and platforms they couldn't announce yet. Apple TV needs and apps store badly.
 
Rushli0n said:
Actually, it's owned by Time Warner Inc. Time Warner Cable was spun out and has nothing to do with HBO.
Click to expand...

Yes, and the two(TWI/TWC) have nothing in common even though they are both headquartered in the same NYC building. They absolutely don't talk to each other *wink* *wink*
 
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