RAW Leaves Spike

[sek69]

 

3/10/2005 8:12:00 PM

 

Raw leaves Spike TV

 

 

by Dave Meltzer

 

[email protected]

 

Spike TV sent out a press release earlier today announcing they have closed negotiations with WWE regarding renewing their five-year contract.

 

It is believed to now be a formality that WWE Raw and the rest of the weekend cable shows, Heat, Velocity and Experience, will be moving to the USA Network in September.

 

"After several months of negotiations, we have decided to end our discussions about extending our relationship with WWE beyond September 2005," wrote Spike TV in a press release. "Moving forward, Spike TV will expand its investments in original programming and new acquisitions for its core audience."

 

This is a huge blow to the network, as Raw was, by far, its most popular program and led to it be the No. 4 rated network when it came to the coveted 18-34 and 18-49 demographics.

 

USA appears to be the only major cable option for Raw,as TNT, TBS and FX have all confirmed no negotiations nor interest in the show.

 

 

[Guest TheShawshankRudotion]

Holy shit.

[Guest HungryJack]

BACK to USA? hmm.

[Guest TheShawshankRudotion]

Hopefully this means a set design change. And a opening change. And a change in their entire production of the show.

[Loss]

Yes. This is good news for WWE, since they never should have left in the first place. Barry Diller actually hired a focus group to examine the differences between Nitro and RAW when they were getting their asses kicked, and helped Vince and company come up with a new strategy. They're probably going to expect much higher ratings than they initially get, and when they don't get them, they're going to start asking questions and forcing the issue. That's what history says anyway.

[Guest The Man in Blak]

Hopefully this means a set design change.  And a opening change.  And a change in their entire production of the show.

I wholeheartedly agree. I don't know whether it was Spike TV or the additional production crew members that the WWE assimilated from WCW, but the entire presentation of the show completely jumped the shark around the time that they moved from USA. They desperately need a reboot.

[Loss]

The cool thing about USA is that they'll hire focus groups to watch the show and they won't tolerate WWE dicking around like they're known to do. "You have too much HHH on your shows" will probably come up at some point.

[Guest Cam Chaos]

It'd be interesting if they get ratings analysts to see who draws in the viewers and who makes them change the channel. I'm sure they long for the days it drew 5.0 - 6.5 ratings and want to go back to getting those.

[Guest The Man in Blak]

The cool thing about USA is that they'll hire focus groups to watch the show and they won't tolerate WWE dicking around like they're known to do. "You have too much HHH on your shows" will probably come up at some point.

I find it odd that Spike TV wouldn't have done this.

 

Then again, they greenlighted the Video Game Awards for a second year in a row. Perhaps my expectations are too high.

[Guest Some Guy]

Spike TV is maybe the dumbest network I'ev ever watched. Outside of Ultimate Fighter (which I love) and Joe Schmoe 1 (which was funny) they haven't had a single show that I would watch. I couldn't stand the "We got Pop" bullshit when Raw first switched and I remember Meltzer saying that some TNN higher ups thought that it was the main reason for increased cable ratings, more so than the aqquisition of Raw.

I don't think that Vince should have ever gone there but at the time he was getting too big for his britches and wanted to do the XFL amongst other things and the Viacom deal was the way to attain that.

 

This might be good for WWE to back "home" but might they not get the best deal with no other bidders?

 

As far as SD! goes, if UPN tosses it, I'd bet that they would be able to get it on USA. I think it would actually be good for the show. A 3.5 rating is big in cable and tiny on network TV. If WWE got Raw, SD!, Heat, and Velocity on USA they would have the 2 highest rated shows for sure and if they actually cared about the latter two and did something with them they could have 4.

 

I still think that giving Heymen the Velocity hour, letting him pluck a few guys of the main rosters and giving him some of the smaller OVW guys would be a good show. Promote it a little bit on Raw and SD! and I'd bet that people would watch, they could do better than the 0.7 or so that they do now.

[Guest HungryJack]

All told, the switch means little to me, as long as TSN still broadcasts RAW here in Canada,. I reckon I can do without the B, C, and D-shows. Curiously though, it was around the time that WWE moved to Spike that my interest began to wane, so maybe they'll treat this move as some sort of major shake-up and chnage the product accordingly.

[Guest The Man in Blak]

it was around the time that WWE moved to Spike that my interest began to wane, so maybe they'll treat this move as some sort of major shake-up and chnage the product accordingly.

Well, it didn't really impact them the last time they moved; IIRC, the first Raw on Spike TV had the return of Steve Austin and more Austin-related shenanigans.

[Guest The Metal Maniac]

The best part of that RAW was Regal attempting to read Shakespeare, so Austin came out, gave him a stunner, and left.

 

Didn't say or do anything else, just KICKWHAMSTUNNER, buh-bye. Gold.

 

I wanna know who thought it was a good idea to let RAW, which is like, the highest-rated program they have, go to another channel.

[Guest Some Guy]

Maybe they realized that they gave Vince too much to get him to come to TNN and he wanted evenmore for giving them less than what they expected. Raw was doing 5s when they switched, now they are in the high 3s for the most part. Heat was doing 3.5s at it's peak, now it's about 1.0. Vince has allowed his comany to slowly lose viewers for 5 years and doesn't want to accept the reasons for it or do anything to change it. I don't see a big ratings resurgence for Raw anythime soon, so it might make financial sense for Spike to drop it.

[Loss]

RAW immediately lost a ratings point when they switched networks. I wonder if they'd immediately gain it back going back.

[Guest Steffie]

We have some major news that has the possibility of changing the landscape of pro wrestling as we know it. In a press statement released this week, SpikeTV announced, "After several months of negotiations, we have decided to end our discussions about extending our relationship with WWE beyond September 2005. Moving forward, Spike TV will expand its investments in original programming and new acquisitions for its core audience."

 

Wherever RAW winds up, With WWE leaving SpikeTV in September, that leaves a HUGE opening in Spike's Monday night primetime slot. There is a lot of speculation that TNA representatives will be meeting with SpikeTV and Viacom very shortly about the possibility of TNA taking over RAW's timeslot.

 

At this time, it is unknown whether or not WWE and SpikeTV have a no-complete clause whereas SpikeTV could not air another wrestling program in RAW's timeslot for a certain period of time. If this is not the case, SpikeTV can begin airing a weekly Monday night TNA show immediately and steal the momentum left behind from RAW. As hard as WWE would try to alert their fans that they were switching networks, there would still be a large portion of their audience that would tune into SpikeTV the week after RAW was gone out of habit.

 

Theoretically, if WWE's contract with Spike ended immediately following the end of the last RAW broad cast, TNA could air "Monday Night Impact" RIGHT AFTER RAW was over. This would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for TNA to seize that opportunity and reignite the Monday Night Wars. We will have more on this blockbuster story as it develops.

This would be a great move if TNA took Raw's old time slot. Wrestling needs a serious kick in the ass right now. This could be the chance for TNA to step up and make a big, pardon the term, Impact on the wrestling world. They'd pick up a bigger number of viewers who would tune in to see Raw and they'll keep their core audience. This would in turn make Vince look at his own promotion now that he'd have a rivalry. This is great news if it happens. Give TNA a chance and they'll surprise you.

[Guest Some Guy]

I can't see TNA competing with WWE on Monday nights. They just don't have the guys necesary to get most people to watch. If this were to work then Spike would have to dump a ton of money into TNA and they'd need to sign Goldberg or Brock if he wins his case and doesn't go back to WWE or some other person who the fans regonize as a top guy who is not 50 years old and hasn't been completely used up by WWE (like Nash or DDP). Virtually every other guy who is not signed by WWE is right now is either way over the hill or an unknown.

 

WCW was already an established promotion who got on top by signing WWF stars. TNA will not be able to get WWE guys, especially not top guys.

 

Plus, Vince would proabably sign their top guys up and leave the promotion with nothing but Jarrett and Dusty if he ever saw them as even a remote threat. I think this is just a pipe dream for people who wish to relive the glory years of 1997 and 98.

[Loss]

Not to mention that TNA has largely been a money pit thus far, and they've stayed in business by drastically reducing their overhead. They'd have to start drawing big money almost immediately for it to work, or they'd have to find a backer that was willing to take a huge loss the first 2-3 years.

 

If they're going to be on Monday nights, head-to-head is the way to go instead of airing after RAW is over though.

[Guest Some Guy]

Actually, a one hour show that started at 11:00 pm on Spike and had commercials (a few 30 second spots, one featuring the X-Division, one with the Tag division [they should push what the WWE won't] and one with the heavyweights telling people to check out TNA) during Raw on USA is really the only way it could work IMO. They need people to know they exist, having a 2 hour special the week after Raw left from 9-11 and then moving to 11 would give them exposure. If they do well enough at 11, like 2.0s or so then they could potentially move to 9-11.

 

But as you said they don't have the money to compete on talent and need someone with Turner like money to help them out. Maybe Spike would do it partially in spite of Vince leaving them. They give Vince 100s of millions now, TNA would only need a fraction of that.

 

I think it would also benifit TNA greatly if they started running house shows around the south and trying to slowly spread west before heading north.

[Loss]

They'd also need someone not named Jeff Jarrett as world champ. It's tricky starting out, because they need an established name as champ from the get-go, but guys like Jarrett, Hall, Nash, etc are exactly the type you don't want being associated with the product.

[Guest Some Guy]

WWE Wanted $12 Million Increase From Spike TV

Posted By Ashish on 03.11.05

 

Despite ratings drops, WWE wanted more money....

 

The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that Spike TV walked away from from their negotiations with WWE about a new TV deal because WWE was demanding a roughly $12 million increase in programming fees from their previous deal. WWE wanted $40 million a year under the new deal, a sharp increase despite the fact that ratings have gone down for all their shows over the course of the five years WWE has been with Spike TV.

 

The full Hollywood Reporter article is available here.

 

That's sort of what I figured.

 

Loss, I agree with everthign you said in your last post. Which reminded me that Impact! just started. Here comes JJ. I can't contain my excitment!

[Guest Some Guy]

From The Meltz:

 

Regarding Spike's announcement that it was pulling out of negotiations for the WWE contract, here is what we know:

*There is a lot to this story, but both sides are pretty much on a gag order regarding the details, although I'm pretty sure they'll come out at some point

*WWE was blindsided by this announcement, which badly hurts whatever negotiating leverage they may have had with USA Network. However, we'd been given the impression for months that if they had their way, they would go to USA. WWE was attempting to get a rate increase of $28 million per year to $40 million, even though the cable package as a whole is way down from early 2000 when the $28 million deal was negotiated

*As mentioned in our previous note, TNT, TBS and FX all turned down WWE overtures to open negotiations. This doesn't bode well for another wrestling group, because nobody is going to come in with more of an established name and legacy in this business than WWE, and the stations you'd think would have interest wouldn't even open negotiations.

*As of this morning, there had been no talks whatsoever between anyone from TNA and Spike TV

*UFC has not even decided if it wanted to do a second season of Ultimate Fighter even if Spike did (and it's expected based on info we've seen that Spike in fact, did want to continue for a second season). When the first season filming ended, Dana White had told people he never wanted to go through it again, but he may have changed his opinion due to the strong response

*With the purchase of "CSI: New York," for September, Spike is of the impression adding that show 5 nights per week would do more for the network than one strong night of Raw and two weak prime time shows (Heat & Velocity).

[Guest Hunter's Torn Quad]

RAW immediately lost a ratings point when they switched networks. I wonder if they'd immediately gain it back going back.

As from when you said this during a thread over at TSM, the statement that Raw immediately lost a ratings point when switching networks is untrue. The ratings wavered slightly after the switch, but it had nothing to do with the switch, and they were back to the same levels they were doing on USA before the switch within weeks.

[Loss]

Actually, no, they weren't. They were hitting averages of 6.0+ every week for several months in 2000, and they never got above a 5.8 or so until the inVasion the following summer.

 

2000 RAW Ratings

2001 RAW Ratings

 

The unusually low numbers in August can be attributed to being pre-empted for the dog show and being aired in a different time slot.

[Guest Hunter's Torn Quad]

By the end of the year they were getting just 0.05 less than their last USA rating. Even when they did switch to TNN, it still took them almost a month to drop .9, which isn't what I'd call an immediate switch. The switch to TNN had virtually nothing to do with ratings dropping, because they had almost the same number of viewers for the first TNN episode as they had for the last USA episode, and it wouldn't take a week for people to find out that Raw had moved and to find the new channel it was on, especially considering that WWF heavily publicised the switch.