WWE announced Thursday during their 2021 Q4 earnings call that their revenue increased by 12% to a record $1.095 billion, which is the highest in company history.
Among other highlights mentioned in their release was a 24% increase in operating income to $259 million.
Year over year, fourth quarter revenue increased by 30% to $310.3 million while operating income increased 131% to $83.6 million. Part of this was live event attendance, including Saudi Arabia.
Consumer product revenue increased by 21% to $32.6 million.
Live event attendance in the fourth quarter averaged 52% which was down from the third quarter but in line with the fourth quarter of 2019.
During the Q&A portion of the call, WWE president Nick Khan indicated there are going to be more players bidding on rights than there were for the last round of deals as players like Netflix, Apple and others join the fight for sports streaming rights.
Khan said they feel as good about a new deal for WWE Raw second day streaming rights as they did for their last Raw/SmackDown deals and Peacock/WWE Network deal. The rights are currently with Hulu. That deal expires at the end of this year.
Peacock News
- July 2021 MITB: 25% higher
- August 2021 SummerSlam: over 30% higher
- September 2021 Extreme Rules 20% higher
- October 2021 Crown Jewel in Saudi Arabia: 75% higher
- November 2021 Survivor Series: almost 25% higher
Other Nick Khan Notes:
Day 1 attracted 60% higher viewership than any December “premium live event” in company history and was a big success as it was a sell out.
The success of the Royal Rumble with more than 44,000 fans in attendance, and the second largest gate in event history. There was 45% higher viewership for this year’s show on Peacock vs. the 2020 Royal Rumble.
3.5 million fully paid Peacock subscribers have watched WWE programming since moving over to the streaming service.
WWE is looking at more international partnerships with their Network in other countries and are going region by region, country by country to figure out the right partners like what they did with recently with Disney+ in Indonesia.
Other Notes with Vince McMahon, Stephanie McMahon and Nick Khan:
Vince McMahon provided brief remarks and said WWE re-imagines their business every month and every week, citing a very flexible staff.
The company has more than a dozen signed content deals in the works utilizing an existing IP which will be announced soon.
WWE is planning two large-scale international events next year, and are looking at doing more in 2023.
The company has signed WWE-branded lottery tickets to debut in several states this year.
There was lots of discussion of gaming and how they feel it’s going to be even bigger. They mentioned WWE2K and other game offerings, noting that 85% of WWE fans identify themselves as gamers.
Both Khan and McMahon discussed the NIL program. They are hoping to attract talents that do not quite make it to the NFL, citing Goldberg, Big E and others as examples of standout college athletes.
Stephanie McMahon said there is no reason WWE should not be in the hundreds of millions in the years ahead for both advertising and sponsorship revenue. They generated nearly $72 million in 2021.
Stephanie later said they are looking into how to be part of the “Metaverse” as they see a huge opportunity to be involved. They are doing their due diligence to go about things the right way.
During the Q&A portion, there were no questions related to AEW, Shane McMahon, or all the 2021 talent cuts.
Source: F4WOnline