Welcome to Fightful's live coverage of the WWE third quarter financial call. WWE Co-President George Barrios, Co-President Michelle Wilson and SVP Financial Planning & Investor Relations Michael Weitz are hosting the call. You can view the press release announcing third quarter financials here. You can listen to the call here.
WWE 3rd Quarter earnings call getting underway.
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As expected, no Vince McMahon on the call. It's Barrios and Wilson. Michael Weitz is going through the forward thinking statements. pic.twitter.com/hIBZ3CYcIB
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Barrios going through the highlights. pic.twitter.com/XALFmNGn26
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Barrios discussing media and pulling media quotes praising WWE Network. pic.twitter.com/RSCdeXc9RQ
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Wilson praising the SmackDown move to Fox and the first 3 weeks of ratings. She moves on to discuss the amount of content they are producing including WWE Backstage, After The Bell, the animated movie, and more.
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Looking at the decline of live events. Wilson quickly gets the negatives out of the way before discussing the big overseas events. pic.twitter.com/rhzle5KJOB
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Wilson discussing WWE 2K20. "The feedback has been mixed, but we believe in Take Two Interactive." pic.twitter.com/My30MvOdxt
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Capital structure and financial outlook. pic.twitter.com/k98tgycbG3
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A look at 2020 and beyond. pic.twitter.com/ByeU0eSJHN
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Done with the slides. Now the Q&A starts.
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Barrios doesn't really answer a question about NXT going on the road. Continues to discuss having more content and the opportunity to have NXT on USA.
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Barrios hopes to have distribution deal with India done by the end of the year. Doesn't have a timeline for MENA.
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Barrios is asked about how many hours of original content are on WWE Network with NXT now on USA. Doesn't give a firm answer. Talks about the Network tiers but doesn't give any kind of date on when it will happen.
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Barrios is asked about MENA deal again. They expected the deal to be done. It's not. Discussions are ongoing. Won't guarantee two Saudi shows a year moving forward.
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Wilson praises the deal with FOX and their promotion. Talks new advertisers including Amazon Prime, Khols, and Taco Bell.
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Barrios hasn't talked about the economics of NXT. Discusses longterm goals and trying to balance things. They moved investment money forward due to engagement trends.
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Barrios isn't talking about Eric Bischoff's firing. Feels good about the changes made to structure with Heyman/Prichard as executive directors.
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Barrios doesn't believe fewer live events has affected value/pricing. Says its too early to tell if FOX deal has affected other business.
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Barrios is asked about talent investment and if the cost has gone up with AEW or if they are worried about talent moving on. Barrios dances around it before putting over the size/platform of WWE. "I would imagine those things are important" to talent thinking of jumping.
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Barrios says creative side, talent and production investments have gone up, but didn't directly name AEW or competition as the reason why.
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That's a wrap on the call.
— Fightful Wrestling (@FightfulWrestle) October 31, 2019
Fightful's Carlos Toro will have a full recap of the financials and call later on Thursday.
