Scott,
Watching the launch of the WWE Network last night was excellent because it was far better of a deal than I was expecting... and it really seems like for once they are ahead of the curve on the direction society is going (for once) in regards to the way people want to get their entertainment. I know you cut the cord a while back and I was wondering if you are still glad you did or if you have found that you are missing out on anything and if you think we will see more stuff like the WWE Network becoming more common leading to more people pulling the plug?
I have also ruthlessly plugged the website I developed with a friend in the comments section so I would be slacking if I didn't include a plug for it here (which I promise I will stop after this) http://getridofcable.net .
Anyway thanks for giving me a platform to kill time and be entertained. Keep it up and have a great day.
As long as I've got Hulu and uTorrent I have nothing to miss from cable. The only thing that was a pain was Big Brother, because it wasn't readily available right away and CBS shows aren't on Hulu.
Ummm...I'm not ready for change!
ReplyDeleteI just posted something similar to this in the other thread, but what people don't realize is that the big cable money is still greatly subsidizing the content that everybody is enjoying on Hulu and other services Netflix has had some success doing this on their own of course with their original series', but it hasn't been proven on a large scale. The majority of TV watching is still done on TV at the scheduled time, despite the growth we are seeing in other areas.
ReplyDelete"As long as I've got Hulu and uTorrent I have nothing to miss from cable."
ReplyDeleteHow do you watch hockey?
"it really seems like for once they are ahead of the curve on the direction"
ReplyDeleteOMG! This is the funniest thing I've read in a while. The WWE isn't ahead of the curve. They FAILED at developing a cable network. This is their backup plan. They never, ever wanted to do this.
You know why? Because if they did, they would have done it THREE YEARS AGO. Literally nothing was stopping them from announcing this version of the WWE Network at any point before Wednesday.
When did this place turn into a WWE fanboy zone? Give wrestling geeks some old PPVs and they'll love you unconditionally...
Give people everything they could ever ask for at an affordable price and people end up happy about it. What a strange concept.
ReplyDelete3 years ago is a lifetime in tech. 3 years ago Hulu plus was just taking off, and the streaming technology isn't where it is now.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I don't get that argument at all. Old PPVs from WCW/ECW/WWE, TV shows, etc. Ok that's not a bad deal at all. Then add live PPV's and people think its stupid? I don't get it.
ReplyDeleteSo they are giving us access to every PPV ever and most likley every TV show down the road as well as every new PPV Live at a reduced cost and this is all somehow a failure? I know they originally wanted a cable network but this works MUCH better.
ReplyDeleteI want to add, hi Parallax! Nice e-mail you nerd.
ReplyDeleteYou know, I'm the first to call out the WWE on their bullshit (ok, maybe not the first but close) but when I see they do something right I give them credit where credit is do. I don't just shit on the WWE just to shit on it.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I was thinking of just putting up "Scott, I wouldn't let this emailer around your wife".
ReplyDeleteThis was a great question posed by favorite_loser in another thread...do we think it'll be unlimited access to everything for as long as you're a subscriber or do you think they'll rotate content in amd out every month to entice the viewers to keep paying? As long as they have a large amount of content available at 1 time, it ultimately won't matter to me, but it's a good question
ReplyDeleteThey have a FAQ:
ReplyDelete24. Is the entire WWE library available through on demand?
WWE Network will launch with more than 1,500 hours of on-demand content, including all WWE, WCW and ECW pay-per-views. New, on-demand content will be added regularly.
I'm interpreting it as all the ppvs will always be available but raws and stuff will be rotated in and out. Works for me, if the entire collection of ppvs can't keep me occupied, I have issues
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't say one way or another. But 1500 hours is still 1500 hours of show. I mean EVERY PPV from WWECWCW? Come on now, that's a lot of show!
ReplyDelete23. Does WWE Network programming contain advertisements?
ReplyDeleteMost WWE programming on WWE Network will be commercial-free, however, there will be limited promotional content in select programs.
Suck it commercials!
Fucking awesome.
ReplyDeleteLOL it isn't like I tried to hide it.
ReplyDeleteFrom my good friend TheCubsFan
ReplyDelete"This is not confirmed, but there seems to be an overall sense that a portion of the archived content will be rotated in and out over the long term. WWE will have a lot of hours of content on this service, but Meltzer got a quote saying it's only 1.5% of their entire library at first. We may eventually get access to most everything WWE owns, but not any time soon and maybe over the very long term."
1.5%!?!?
Wow. I was gonna try and explain the rationale but I'm not sure you'd comprehend it.
ReplyDeleteContrary contrarians are contrary. It doesn't go any deeper than that.
ReplyDeleteYowsers. My assumption was they'd rotate but 1.5????
ReplyDeleteBut instead you decided to say that thought about thus getting it out there while simultaneously getting yourself off the hook for it?
ReplyDelete1.5% of their entire library has to be thousands of hours still.
ReplyDeleteI think that the FAQ said around 1500 hours of archived content at launch.
ReplyDeleteYeah, that's what I'm saying. They're starting off with a huge amount and its only 1.5%? damn
ReplyDeleteThe only other thing I can think of that I'd want would be a couple of live house shows to stream each week. They did a good job nailing what I want.
ReplyDeletewell consider this: they're done...1000+ Raws. some 3 hours, some one hour. That's...roughly 2500 hours there a lone. Toss in 12 3 hour ppvs for the past...20 years, and your head starts to spin.
ReplyDeletePLUS WCW PLUS ECW PLUS other promotions I'm forgetting.
This would make a great closing scene on a political commercial. "So dont vote for X because he doesnt take a stand. Hes a contrary contrarian thats contrary. It doesnt go amy deeper than that."
ReplyDeleteI don't care what their original plan was. Having looked at that and decided that it wasn't feasible they came up with a fantastic, ahead of the curve, plan b.
ReplyDeleteHating stuff is great and all, but once in a while it's ok not to hate. If this works as they say it will then it's most of our dreams come true, or pretty darn close to true.
"I am Parallax1978 and I approve this message" :: Shot of me with a family doing wholesome things ::
ReplyDeleteYea. I think im gonna try and watch shit in chronological order.Itll be a little annoyning I I cant but its a small nitpick. if I watch 60 hours of it a month ill feel guilty about my life
ReplyDeleteTHAT would be the thing in your life that makes you feel guilty?
ReplyDeleteThat would be pretty cool.
ReplyDeleteCBC streams it. If he watches hockey.
ReplyDeleteIve come to terms with my other vices. Watching 15 hours of wrestling a week tho would make me question things.
ReplyDeleteI cut cable and love it, but I'm a bad example as I don't really care to watch much anyhow. The only things that I miss are Raw and Smackdown (which I hadn't watched in months, but miss that I can't watch if something catches my attention), and a couple of foodie shows.
ReplyDeleteMy Wife watched a bunch of drama's but she can stream a few of them + we have Netflix and so she's catching up on shows that she never watched in first run, or never had access to.
STOP THE PRESSES.
ReplyDeleteYou mean that when a company makes a service that gives the fans a shitload more than they expected and access to their immense library at an affordable price, they're going to rejoice and give them praise?! What a fucking concept!
My thought (hope) is that their strategy will be to never yank content away once it's already been put on the Network, but at the same time they're going to be very deliberate about how quickly they roll new stuff out.
ReplyDeleteLike say they launch with an archive of every WWF/WCW/ECW PPV ever and like the last 5 years of Raw/Smackdown On-Demand. Then 5 months from launch, right when people are contemplating another 6-month subscription... they add 5 more years of Raw/Smackdown, plus like 5 years of complete WCW/NWA TV, and a certain amount of Mid South TV. Something like that. And everything that was offered at launch remains in the on-demand.
So basically, they stretch out putting the ENTIRE ARCHIVE of professional wrestling until who knows, 10 years in? Just add some stuff every few months to keep renewing interest, but never take anything away.
Do you watch sports? I got pretty serious about cutting cable last year but I like to watch sports, once I added up getting the nfl and nba packages along with like hulu or amazon prime pr whatever, it wasnt that, much cheaper. If I could get cheap live sports id be all over it also
ReplyDeleteUntil every live sport is available streaming and quality is guaranteed, I'm sticking with cable.
ReplyDeleteI've got netflix and a shit load of DVDs, I never watch TV stations anymore. I work irregular hours so it makes more sense to have a service where I can watch stuff when I choose to.
ReplyDeleteI will be interested in how much the older stuff does in viewing figures, on the old wrestling channel in the UK World of Sport was the highest rated show after TNA so it wouldn't surprise me if the classic stuff makes filler garbage, like Legends House and whatever else they spunk out, unnecessary in the end.
We cut the cable. NFL is on over the air antennas. Anything else can be found online if you don't mind watching on a computer. I haven't had any issues with it.
ReplyDeleteGood to know. I might reevaluate when I can grt out of my contract
ReplyDeleteI was just talking to a friend recently who's in basically the same boat as you (except harder because we have fewer options up here.) If you watch sports then you're sort of screwed.
ReplyDeleteI watch hockey when I can, which is a lot less now than ever before. CBC streams HNIC and I've watched that a few times. I don't really watch any other sports.
This really is one of the most absolutely needlessly contrary posts that I've ever seen.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely something people are overlooking with the "death to cable and the broadcast model" push. Specifically, we all want a system in which we get ALL our content through commercial-free, on-demand distributors like Netflix. (Or the WWE Network model.) But won't the content producers be taking in WAYYYYY less revenue when that's the only distribution model? $8 a month Netflix subscriptions alone will not pay for all the content that is currently being produced and consumed.
ReplyDeleteGetting rid of sky-high cable bills that make you pay for shit you don't even watch is one thing. But getting rid of the advertiser-supported model (which TV was founded on and has lived on for it's entire run) isn't as simple. Ad dollars have to remain a large part of the equation, because subscriber fees alone won't pay for all this shit.
I built a small rig just to hook up to the TV for streaming and it's pretty great.
ReplyDeleteYou could also go with your cheap basic cable package (which usually includes ESPN) so that way you can watch ESPN 3 (if you have it) and Watch ESPN.
ReplyDeleteIm glad there is a solid consice informative website that helps me navigate the "getting rid of cable options"!!!
ReplyDelete::trying to get some royalties::
Dude, exactly. Whats gonna happen is people are gonna watchsome shitty wwe/wcw programming for years ago and then somehow blame the network. Strawman arguement.
ReplyDeleteDon't rip off my schtick, bro.
ReplyDelete:: Bro Hug ::
ReplyDeleteEven shit like Cricket?
ReplyDeleteIn all honesty, these new live streaming services, YouTube, Hulu, and what not are basically equivalent to the early days of cable. It's kind of the wild west out there and people aren't quite sure how to make money off of this stuff yet, so we benefit from all kinds of amazing content in a fashion similar to early cable subscribers who got a mostly unedited stream of weird and awesome shit. Cable was actually quite amazing until business found a way to homogenize and destroy it by eventually having every cable station begin to mirror every other cable station somewhere in the mid-to-late '90s, and it's going to happen with all of these services in probably five to ten years. So enjoy this stuff while it lasts.
ReplyDeleteI have it sorted by newest so I didn't see yours when I typed mine.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I really miss is being able to watch the news live. Yes I get alerts and see news show up on feeds, but I do miss watching MSNBC sometimes. Helpful hint to all cord cutters.. many people are sharing Netflix passwords, but if you can find someone with an Xfinity or TWC password to share then you get tons of content and some live channels. My father has a large cable package and I use his password to watch shows online.
ReplyDeleteOr get all bent out of shape when that 97 raw they really wanted isnt available yet. THIS SHIT IS AWESOME!
ReplyDeleteHandball
ReplyDeleteI cut the cord a year ago and don't miss it whatsoever. Sadly I probably watch more tv than I used to thanks to Netflix and Amazon Prime. Between the two of them I've been able to watch the entire runs of Arrested Development, Archer, The League, and the new set of Dr. Who, and am using Daily Motion to watch the classic Dr. Who episodes. Most of the important sports stuff is on free tv, and I've got ways to watch wrestling.
ReplyDeleteBaseball's pretty much the only thing giving me pause on cutting cable pretty soon. The MLB season pass thing blocks out your local team, which to me makes the whole thing worthless unless you're a fan who's living in a different city than your home (favorite) team. If that rule ever changed, they'd have my money easy.
ReplyDeleteNFL games are so infrequent (especially if you're a fan like me who really only cares about watching their own team's games until the playoffs) that you can easily catch it at bars or friends' houses. Or even just catch the games sans-cable with an antenna, right?
Another thought: WWE would be wise to embrace wrestling outside of its own sphere. By charging a nominal fee to independent promotions that create their own shows to display those events on the WWE Network, they get a wealth of content in addition to a new revenue stream for the network outside of basic advertising rates. It would have to be something reasonable to accommodate small organizations, but it would actually benefit WWE in the long run by giving exposure to independent workers who will most likely end up in WWE's feeder system at some point anyway. And it boosts visibility for smaller companies thereby helping them survive since people can find independent wrestling in their own backyard and potentially go to the live events to support those groups. Clearly ROH and TNA wouldn't apply since they're "majors." The only real hurdle is Vince himself and his willingness to promote a brand outside of his own.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if they are counting the shameless shilling on each show or the branded PPV's.
ReplyDeleteGood, it should be virtually commercial free considering you're paying a monthly fee. Similar to Netflix, HBO, etc.
ReplyDeletethere is already an indy promotion that has a channel on Roku. I haven't watched it yet, but its free then does streaming PPVs (I think) for a small fee.
ReplyDeleteAs others have said, this may have been Plan B, but it puts Plan A to shame.
ReplyDeleteSometimes a bad first idea can lead to a great second idea.
http://forums.roku.com/viewtopic.php?p=390650&sid=2141d6856eb089cb711032e922e79b57
ReplyDeleteI can't imagine they'd ever air something that they don't completely control. They'd be responsible (publicly at least) for the actions of guys who aren't their employees, and the wrestling quality and production values would reflect on WWE. No chance they ever start airing stuff that isn't owned by them outright.
ReplyDeleteSomebody gets it..
ReplyDeleteGood point. I think the commercial-free aspect will be the hardest to maintain longterm. Ad dollars have been what's funded content since the beginning of TV, including the vast majority of cable stations. No way that can be replicated with (lower) subscription fees.
ReplyDeleteI don't mean live. They'd be able to vet which promotions end up on the network, so that excludes the death match shit and whatever. And they'd only be responsible in that they'd be contracting through a third-party in the same way a cable network hires a production company to create shows for them. The company does something stupid? They get dropped. There's no expense on WWE's end for anything like this, and they can set production standards for content submission, so I think this is a net benefit for them.
ReplyDeleteWhat other companies/brands could do this other than the WWE and HBO? I guess Disney have so many movies and shows that they could probably strike out on their own away from Netflix and offer their library at $10-20 a month and make a buttload of money.
ReplyDeleteIn a way I struggle to figure out how the movie studios can be making that much money off of Netflix and other streaming services. I sometimes wonder if they all shouldn't try to do the same. $5 a month and you get every movie produced by Paramount or Miramax or Fox or whatever. I guess the problem is over saturation. Maybe arthouse studios/brands like Artificial Eye or Criterion could get a highly affluent demographic and charge quite a lot.
But the WWE really is in the best situation out of all of them because they own everything. EVERYTHING!...
BTW, as a parent another huge plus for not having cable is no commercials. My kids can watch the streaming kids content on Netflix through the blue ray player (or my computer if I need to kick them off so I can watch football), and they don't get inundated with a bunch of ads telling them to buy every cool new useless toy and/or gadget known to man. Granted some of the shows are barely concealed advertisements to buy products coughMyLittlePonycough, but it's generally a nice bonus to the cable free life.
ReplyDeleteIce Curling?
ReplyDeleteOff-Topic: thought some folks here would appreciate seeing that AJ/Kaitlyn hug from after K's final match in GIF format.
ReplyDeletehttp://i.minus.com/iLw3Dw8kJV2eh.gif
The problem with every studio doing their own thing is that it dilutes the market. No one's going to buy 5+ movie stations at $10 a pop just to get a movie fix. That's almost as much as basic cable rates. Netflix offers a one-stop source for consumers, which is a benefit to movie studios because they also don't have to spend money on the infrastructure to create and maintain such a service.
ReplyDeleteMan, I got the MLB season pass thing a few years ago and was so outraged on the local team block outs I swore I'd never get it again. Liked it but like you said it somewhat negates the whole point
ReplyDeleteI just can't imagine all these subscription based services, like Netflix and WWE Network, will be able to remain commercial-free longterm. Ad dollars are what support almost all the content that has ever been created on TV. HBO is a very very VERY small piece of that overall pie. I just don't think $10-a-month Netflix subscriptions will make up for advertising going away once more and more people cut the cord. There's gonna end up being more ad-creep on the subscription services.
ReplyDeleteGood idea. Some type of indy channel would make sense because they would have hard numbers on which wrestlers are popular with their fans and working out an exposure deal with the indys would expand their farm system while potentially keeping some of them afloat. Although in the grand scheme of things.. I doubt they would want content on their 'network" that they have no control over.
ReplyDeleteThank you!
ReplyDeleteI don't get this no control argument. They obviously wouldn't live stream the content. It would be submitted and reviewed before being put up on the service. They'd have control in the sense that they could choose which companies to air and then oversight on the content being submitted by those companies.
ReplyDeleteYeah that sounds so frustrating, especially if that's not what you expected when you signed up.
ReplyDeleteI mean, I get WHY they're doing it--- because the cable companies pay sports an unGodly amount to keep themselves relevant, and plus the baseball teams all have ownership stakes in these regional sports networks— but eventually that'll change. Probably offset with a price increase or some "Home Team Gold Tier" deal.
Plan A - Cable network with its own channel on a cable company's lineup. NO BUYS from me. My cable/internet bill is high enough and I have no intention of making it worse with something that I won't watch very often because I rarely have time to invest in TV.
ReplyDeletePlan B - App-based "network" I can access anywhere - phone, iPad, laptop - for $10 that still gives me the chance to watch pay-per-views? Damn right I'm going to invest in that.
IT doesn't matter if they failed with the Plan A, because Plan B is world's better than we could have hoped for.
I know I said this before, but if it wasn't for the blackouts on MLB, I wouldn't even bother with cable. With Netflix, Hulu Plus and whatever else is out there, I don't need it. But I like watching the Yankees play, so I dropped the coin for cable.
ReplyDeleteYeah, the market would be oversaturated. I just struggle to figure out how Netflix can be much of a money maker for the studios.
ReplyDeleteLike I said it's probably something an arthouse studio could look into, but they probably lost their shot when Netflix completely undercut everyone.
Does a bro hug count as a royalty?
ReplyDeleteSee, that got more of an involuntary "Awwww, that's SO cute" reaction from me than anything else. Now, I have to watch Main Event on my Hulu Plus account (see, I made it relevant to this topic).
ReplyDeleteYeah I dunno. I mean personally I'd LOVE to see that shit--- I was the type of fan who loved watching dying days USWA stuff on some random sports channel when I was a kid. But even with airing the shows on tape and putting on content/production standards, I can't in a million years imagine WWE ever doing this. Because simply they'd just say... we can do it ourselves. Their entire philosophy now is "fuck the indies, we can do everything ourselves", so I can't see why they'd change course and start airing some random indie from Chicago.
ReplyDeleteThe other thing is that the reward on that is really small for them. The only fans who would be interested would be hardcores, and they're already on board thanks to the archives and the free PPVs. Me and you would love to see some random indie show, but they already have our money.
Anyway, who knows. Maybe they do stuff like this I'd just doubt it. But perhaps they do eventually take bigger risks with programming on the Network--- maybe not airing indies outright, but perhaps creating indie-esque wrestling shows (a cruiserweight show, a hardcore-wrestling show, etc) that they own and promote themselves.
I think this works for WWE only because of the current PPVs being on there. From a fan's perspective, getting 12 PPVs for the price of 2 is amazing. With almost anything else, the shows can just be part of an existing service like Hulu or Amazon. If the WWE Network did not include the live PPVs, I think a lot of us would not be on board with $10 per month and would be saying 'hey, why not just team up with Netflix/Amazon and let us stream your library through their already existing system?"
ReplyDeleteI was a cord cutter for 3 years. I bought the first model Roku in 2010, and it was very useful. I had MLB.TV (the only sport I will watch live), Netflix, Crackle, a free Epix account, and a live streaming app called USTVNow (I had to mess with my IP address in order to mask my US location, ie, I tricked them). But then my internet provider *coughVerizoncough* started to bog down. In my area we don't get Fios, and the other two options were cable and dish. I decided to go with DirecTV in 2013, mainly for the MLB package, because my stream was constantly buffering (max I get 3Mbps, how shitty is that?). After the contract is up in 2015, I am cutting the cord once again, purchasing whatever the latest model Roku is at that point, and upgrading to cable internet. And Verizon can suck it.
ReplyDeleteBring back Prime Wrestling!
ReplyDeleteYeah. Maybe Disney could do it because they produce all those TV movies like your High School Musicals, so maybe they could give it an exclusivity like PPVs and they only go on their cable TV channels/DVD six months later or something.
ReplyDeleteIt's a Brave New World out there...
Yes this is a strange concept.
ReplyDeleteNow smell each other a little.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4Kn_V3g8ig
ReplyDeleteIf they could get into a deal with ROH where you can get every show from 2002-08 then I would be in nerd heaven.
ReplyDeleteBut my guess is Go Fight Live have told them they could do it for them for 50 bucks...
Haha, ok, I definitely went too far by saying every live sport.
ReplyDeletethe whole network launch and the reactions it got here is the best example that most of us "smarks" absolutely love this silly thing called wrestling (and don't just "hate" on the WWE or other companies just for the hell of it).
ReplyDeleteexactly. and even better for guys like me that are not from the US, it is a plan that will benefit fans worldwide.
ReplyDeleteYea. MLB extra innings is awesime but the local team blackout thing is so dumb.
ReplyDeleteThat's why over-the-air broadcast TV and the Big Four networks will always exist.
ReplyDeleteReally, the cable industry brought it onto themselves. If MTV, Fuse, Muchmusic and VH1 stayed committed to airing music videos round the clock and didn't turn to "Reality and Pop Garbage 101", people would still be watching those channels in droves.
If History, A&E and Discovery had stayed true to their formats and continued to provide informative, educational programming then they wouldn't be looked down on as rock-bottom, lowbrow garbage like they are now.
And do you notice that TV Land went from frequently being one of cable's highest rated channels when they were a haven for old shows to never once appearing on the "Most Watched Channels" list since they changed their format to new forgettable garbage and constant commercials?
People like to blame stealing and streaming but really, cable declined because they tried to fix something that wasn't broken, they didn't realize that people still want music videos, educational programming, good niche series and old shows on a channel that doesn't lump those shows in with overplayed to death shows like "Friends" and "Everybody Loves Raymond". But no, they had to get rid of all of that smart scheduling so they can show the same 10 shitty reality shows ad nauseum.
And do you notice that the most successful cable channel and the one that gets the most money from cable companies (ESPN) is also the one that didn't fix what wasn't broken, didn't change a format that never needed to be changed in the first place? And what do you know, they're raking in more money than everybody else because they stuck to their guns and didn't change something that people wanted into something they don't want.
Netflix is basically picking up content that currently isn't in a cable / syndication cycle. Cable networks can only have so many movies airing per month so Netflix is a good dumping ground for unused content.
ReplyDeleteThey do pick up some top tier stuff like The Avengers and recent TV hits like The Walking Dead and The Office but those are the exception rather than the rule.
I haven't seen ToddLorenz around forever. He went like 3 months posting incessantly trying to break the glass ceiling. Did ccultstatus future endeavor him?
ReplyDeleteI don't know, I was noticing that he wasn't around either.
ReplyDeleteI won't spoil the ending for you then...
ReplyDeleteI also wondered about that.
ReplyDeleteThey bring back Song of the South for this, or no deal.
ReplyDeleteAt least he's in the top 8.
ReplyDeleteCultstatus is threatened by anyone that even remotely gets over. Someone check the local high school to see if they hired a new janitor.
ReplyDeleteThey did Todd's chant during a College game?
ReplyDeleteI'd imagine at the least that the PPVs will have some additional sponsored content. Maybe they'll do something simple like have an overall sponsor's logo on the ring apron like boxing and UFC.
ReplyDeleteThey have so many episodes in the vault that they could add one new random episode of something every day and not exhaust the library in our lifetimes.
ReplyDelete4 Words: Sale On Ice Cream
ReplyDeleteHahahah
ReplyDelete