WWE Stock Experiences Major Drop After Television Deals Announced

WWE’s financial stock is in major jeopardy right now. As PWInsider.com notes, its current stock stands at $10.34 as of early Friday morning, a significant drop since its peak of $31.98.

According to the report, the major drop has mostly come as a result of questions surrounding WWE’s new television deal with NBCUniversal. On Thursday, WWE struck a deal to return to the company’s networks, including USA for “Monday Night Raw” and Syfy for “Friday Night Smackdown.”

As reported back in December, WWE had been looking for a significant increase in its newest television deal, which was likely to include packages for most WWE programming. It was attempting to target something similar to NASCAR’s $800 million deal it recently brokered. Howver, according to the PWInsider.com report, there is serious doubt WWE came anywhere close to what it had wanted in network negotiations, which gave severe worry to investors.

Another reason for the stock drop is said to be the performance of the WWE Network. Many are worried about the company no longer making significant money off of pay-per-views and relying off network signups to make up for the price. It was previously noted the WWE stock had dropped over concern of lack of subscriptions as well.

From Thursday into Friday, the stock dropped almost $10, closing at $19.93 but sliding significantly in after hours trading.

Editor’s Note:

This is astronomically bad news for WWE. It shows a major failure on its behalf to secure a luxurious television package, and more significantly, failure (thus far) of the WWE Network from a financial perspective. The network is phenomenal for the hardcore fan, but there needs to be more of a draw created for the casual fan. If they cannot draw the casual fan, then the network will flop even more.

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