WWE Q4 & full 2019 financial results: Revenue, Network subs, attendance

[cero2k]

Source: f4wonline.com

Prior to their investors' call Thursday morning, WWE released their 2019 Q4 numbers, showing 18% revenue growth to $322.8 million, good for their highest quarterly revenue in company history.

The reason for the increase was revenue from their new TV deals, offsetting lower revenue from their live events. Quarterly net revenue in Media increased to $264.6 million, up from Q3's $205.3 million. Year over year, Media net revenue increased to $743.1 million, up from 2018's $683.4 million.

Despite the increase, Wall Street didn't respond favorably as the stock was trading at $42.34 as of this writing, down $6.62 from Wednesday.

We will have live coverage from the investors call at 11 AM Eastern on Twitter with any pertinent notes included below.

A few quarterly notes from their release:

An increase in operating income of 87% to $99.8 million due to the increase in TV rights fees.

$107.6 million adjusted OIBDA, an increase of 67%.

WWE Network subscriptions dropped by 10% to 1.42 million. They are predicting a slight increase to 1.47 million for Q1 of 2020.

Some key highlights for 2019:

Yearly revenue was $960.4 million, a record high for WWE.

Operating income was $116.5 million.

Their adjusted OIBDA was $180 million, the third straight year it has increased.

$120.8 million back to shareholders by way of share repurchases and dividends, a company record.

New and renewed content distribution deals with BT Sport and Channel 5 (UK); Fox Sports (Latin America); PP Sports (China), and SuperSport (Africa)

Video views increased by 10% to 34.5 billion with hours consumed increasing to 1.3 billion across both digital/social media platforms, up 7%.

There was an interesting note regarding their 'Cash flows generated by operating activities' decreasing to $121.7 million (down from $186.7 million) "driven by unfavorable changes in working capital primarily related to our fourth quarter event in Saudi Arabia and the payment of the prior year’s accrued management incentive compensation."

Quarterly and yearly notes for Live Events/Consumer Products/Network

Quarterly live event revenue increased to $27.4 million, but was down from last year's $34.4 million. The lack of a supershow in Australia was blamed as well as less events.

Excluding NXT, WWE held 70 shows in Q4 (50 North America and 20 International). That's down from 2017's 87 Q4 events (64 North America and 23 International).

Year over year, live event revenue fell to $125.6 million, down from $144.2 million in 2018. That was attributed to 56 fewer shows, lower average attendance, and the lack of an Australian supershow.

Average North American attendance increased by 15% to 5800 with an average ticket price of $57.13.

Average International attendance decreased to 4100 with a 30% average ticket price increase to $84.26.

Quarterly consumer product revenue increased to $30.8 million, but was down from last year's $32.8 million. Year over year, it was down to $91.7 million from 2018's $102.6 million. Lower video game royalties were to blame.

The loss of Mixed Match Challenge on Facebook Watch contributed to a $7 million decrease in the Other category for Revenue.

Yearly Network revenue was down to $184.6 million, down from $199.3 million in 2018.

WWE entered into agreements for slot machines and ice cream sandwiches, inspired by the classic sandwiches from the 1980s.

Here are what they are looking at for 2020:

An estimated 2020 OIBDA of between $250-300 million due to the full year of revenue from their TV deals with Fox and NBCUniversal

Content distribution deals in the Middle East and India which has been discussed in previous quarters.
The "evaluation of strategic alternatives" for WWE Network, something that has been discussed for a year.

[cero2k]

From hearing Vince's comments on the Network, he is giving the impression of either sending their big events to a larger streaming service like DAZN, or straight up selling the Network itself to someone else.

Barrios and Wilson were the ones behind the network to begin with.

[cero2k]

Vince also thinks of himself as a social revolutionary

[cero2k]

[cero2k]

ask Jon Moxley, Brodie Lee, ACH, The Revival, Sin Cara, Mike Bennet, Cody Rhodes, The Young Bucks, Kenny Omega, Chris Jericho, Matt Hardy, KENTA

[Big Red Machine]

I think Jericho would have no problem working for WWE. He just sees himself doing a bigger service to the industry by working for NJPW and AEW (and he's completely correct).

[Bob-O]

Hasn't changed their "content" at all... haha!

Vince (sipping coffee while penning up a $2 million/year offer to keep a midcard tagteam, covers phone): See, I didn't lie!

From hearing Vince's comments on the Network, he is giving the impression of either sending their big events to a larger streaming service like DAZN, or straight up selling the Network itself to someone else.

Barrios and Wilson were the ones behind the network to begin with

I'm not familiar, but there's been a lot of buzz about UFC partnering with ESPN+... they apparently did really good numbers despite people having to sign up for ESPN's streaming service to then pay again to see UFC's show. I could absolutely see WWE going that route with The Network or like you said selling those events to another streaming service.

Vince isn't wrong, there's so much money left on the table. Honestly, I think if they just offered a package along the lines of Amazon Prime... say, $120 for a year all inclusive, or $6 month to month but you pay extra for the PPV's you want to watch... that's off the top of my head, but I don't think something like that would bring out the pitchforks... the long-term subscribers are already paying it and won't be losing anything. Make PPV's a "free gift" for a year's commitment to the service...

[cero2k]

Vince isn't wrong, there's so much money left on the table. Honestly, I think if they just offered a package along the lines of Amazon Prime... say, $120 for a year all inclusive, or $6 month to month but you pay extra for the PPV's you want to watch... that's off the top of my head, but I don't think something like that would bring out the pitchforks... the long-term subscribers are already paying it and won't be losing anything. Make PPV's a "free gift" for a year's commitment to the service...

the only risk is that they're doing it years after giving away those PPVs for 10 bucks, now they risk 'taking it away' from the fans and without the PPVs and NXT, why keep the network? is the vault and 205 worth it?

[Big Red Machine]

Vince isn't wrong, there's so much money left on the table. Honestly, I think if they just offered a package along the lines of Amazon Prime... say, $120 for a year all inclusive, or $6 month to month but you pay extra for the PPV's you want to watch... that's off the top of my head, but I don't think something like that would bring out the pitchforks... the long-term subscribers are already paying it and won't be losing anything. Make PPV's a "free gift" for a year's commitment to the service...

the only risk is that they're doing it years after giving away those PPVs for 10 bucks, now they risk 'taking it away' from the fans and without the PPVs and NXT, why keep the network? is the vault and 205 worth it?

This.

[Bob-O]

Vince isn't wrong, there's so much money left on the table. Honestly, I think if they just offered a package along the lines of Amazon Prime... say, $120 for a year all inclusive, or $6 month to month but you pay extra for the PPV's you want to watch... that's off the top of my head, but I don't think something like that would bring out the pitchforks... the long-term subscribers are already paying it and won't be losing anything. Make PPV's a "free gift" for a year's commitment to the service...

the only risk is that they're doing it years after giving away those PPVs for 10 bucks, now they risk 'taking it away' from the fans and without the PPVs and NXT, why keep the network? is the vault and 205 worth it?

Yes, I think so.

You're going to be met with adversity any time you "take" something, but I think they get away with it if they can hide behind the "we're not taking anything, you just have to buy the whole year now" argument. The Vault and 205 aren't worth $10 a month, but I think they're worth $5 (or free with ads) and the "added freedom to purchase only the shows you want to watch"... for $10 or $15... I think they hit a better balance of profit vs value while pissing off mostly the people that are borrowing their friend's accounts anyway.

There's SO MANY things they could do with it too, like the little Network Exclusive shows like Starrcade...