The following are the notable items taken from today’s WWE conference call regarding the first quarter earnings report that was released earlier today.
-The conference was hosted by Linda McMahon, CFO George Barrios, and COO Michael Sileck. They all read prepared statements regarding the earnings before turning it over to the investors for questioning.
-One of the executives claimed that USA Network is happy with the ratings that WWE is producing for them.
-Roughly a third of the WrestleMania buys came from international buyers, which is the same as last year. WWE officials are confident that pay-per-view business will increase internationally as the pay-per-view industry grows in foreign markets.
-"We didn’t pay Floyd (Mayweather) $20 million, but we did pay out more for top talent that we have before," Sileck stated while trying to explain WWE’s dip in WrestleMania earnings compared to last year.
-WWE is coming after "lesser known wrestling sites that are existing on our back." They want to lure users of these sites back to WWE.com. They discussed layout and internal changes but did not mention Joey Styles‘s big "promotion." Rather, they hyped the WWE Fan Nation website.
-The admitted that they may have to eliminate some of the live events in small markets and replace them with more overseas dates.
-They are hoping to do a tour in China next year.
-Upcoming DVD releases include collections featuring The Rock and Ric Flair. They admitted the fourth quarter is the strongest when it comes to DVD sales.