Originally Posted by ags_rule:
“Obviously the fact that TNA has a bigger market in the rest of the world than it does in America. We can talk all day about the reasons why that is the case, but all we're doing is speculating. Facts are facts - TNA is beating RAW and Smackdown in the ratings here in the UK nearly every week. Even before they went on Challenge, and they were on the pay-TV channel Bravo, the ratings were swinging 50/50 either way each week. So it's clear that TNA is making waves in the UK in a way that WWE is largely failing to do. When wCw was on terrestrial TV here in the UK, even at it's peak, WWF was still getting higher ratings than it.”
TNA is on free tv. WWE isn't. Even when TNA was on Bravo, it was part of a cheaper package than WWE being in the Sports pack, tradionally on SS3/4.
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“As I said, the international PPV market is what inflates WWE's figures and deflates TNA's. That is a problem TNA need to address.”
It's still 96k to 8k in the States. Being on PPV in other markets throughout the world would no doubt help, but what's to say they would be able to turn higher percentage of their viewers in to PPV buyers than they do in the States.
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“I partially agree with wildmovieguy here, however. The PPV business is crippled thanks to the internet, the sorts of figures that were seen in the 90s and early 00s will never be seen again. Yet what is the alternative? As you say, wrestling is a business, it's there to make money, and one of the major revenue streams of any successful wrestling company has to be PPV.”
People will buy a product if they feel it's worthwhile. WWE and TNA's product has been diluted to such a level, that people feel they can skip the PPVs. Both companies need to stop doing stipulations for no reason, make the belts mean something by putting an emphasis on them.
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“I would be in favour of reducing it from 12 a year to either 4 or 6, and then maybe once a month have a 'special' episode of iMPACT. More time to build up storylines and the PPV begins to be much more important again. Plus, it would give TNA a chance to hold their PPVs all out of the impact zone, which let's face it, they really need to do.”
Reducing the number of PPVs isn't a bad idea, especially considering TNA's currently aren't profitable, but that's their fault for their awful booking. Currently, TNA have contracts to fulfill. Regarding taping shows away from the Impact Zone, supposedly TNA have changed their minds again and are willing to do more shows on the road and absorb the costs.