WWE considering making 24/7 a regular channel

[Bix]

Apparently in Wednesday's WON:

 

The company appears to be considering moving 24/7 from an on-demand PPV subscription type service to its own television channel. They are doing a marketing study which I sense was trying to present evidence to cable companies that people will switch from satellite (or to satellite) based on the ability to see the channel as a free service. Basically it seems to me to be a step in the direction Vince has talked about needing for years now, which is a WWE television channel. The key to having that channel with national clearance for old programs, is that if USA changes power and they don’t want wrestling anymore, or My Network goes down and nobody else is interested, they have a clearance for their programming.

If they do it realistically (charge the cable companies little to no money to get clearances), this could be pretty interesting. Plus, an actual channel would require them to unleash more content and that would be awesome. How much ad money could they get, though>

[KrisZ]

It would be huge for people that have DTV or Dish because they could finally get the 24/7 programming. There are some really odd specialty channels now on DTV so having a WWE specialty channel would make perfect sense and do some big numbers.

[Bob Morris]

Advertising might not be as big of a deal as it might seem to be. There are many of these cable/satellite channels on which ads are either minimal or there are no ads at all, and for those on which no ads air, the company that owns the channel also owns all the footage rights of programs aired on it.

 

Given that WWE would own the right to all the footage aired on 24/7, its costs wouldn't be that great, so WWE could likely get away with few ads.

[Jingus]

It would be huge for people that have DTV or Dish because they could finally get the 24/7 programming.

That's my situation. We've got Dish, and while I would love to have 24/7, it's just not available. So I'd be all for a move such as the one discussed here.

[jdw]

Christ... I think I've been preaching this almost all decade. The problem is that Vince is chasing it at a lower ebb for pro wrestling. Not that it's not still a good/needed thing. But he should have done it instead of the XFL way back when.

 

 

John

[Guest Beefu Keefy]

Oh man!! I had 24/7 but I've since changed to direct tv and they dont offer it. I'd love to get it again. But having it as a channel would be awesome!!

[Bigelow34]

Christ... I think I've been preaching this almost all decade. The problem is that Vince is chasing it at a lower ebb for pro wrestling. Not that it's not still a good/needed thing. But he should have done it instead of the XFL way back when.

 

 

John

It would have been tough though because they didn't own all the libraries they have now. They didn't really embrace their tape library and start honoring the past until the Flair DVD struck it big in 2003. Your point is a good one, as it would have been huge then, but they just didn't have the goods.

 

I wonder if USA, Sci Fi and MyNetwork would allow them to re-air Raw, SD and ECW later in the week if such a channel happened.

[jdw]

They had the goods at the begining of 2000 when the came up with the XFL idea. Really, all they needed was their own large tape library to get it launched at that point.

 

John

[rovert]

Doesnt Italy have this type of service already?

[Bix]

Yeah, I believe they get 24/7's programming served on a regular satellite channel.