Every week after Raw and Impact (other shows as well, but mainly these two) I and a lot of others await to see just how well did the shows do in the ratings.
Were they up? Down? The same? Are they bringing in new viewers? losing a certain demo?
I work a lot of back shifts as of late, which has resulted in me listening to a huge amount of archived Wrestling Observer Radio shows, and I heard the ratings for RAW a few years ago being in the high 3's. Today the average rating seems to be a 3.3 which is roughly 4-5 million viewers. (I'm horrible with guessing numbers like that.)
Then I got curious about what the highest rating was and looked back to see that in September of 1999, which had the "This is your life" segment featuring The Rock and Mankind pulled in an 8.4 rating with 11.5 million viewers.
What the hell happened? Where did all of those "loyal" viewers go? What made them stop watching the product?
WWE has become so obsessed with the weekly ratings, that as soon as they a drop in the ratings and analyze where they lost most viewers, that can have a dramatic effect on a Superstars push and storyline.
I can see where they're coming from, but aren't they acting too fast?
Is a weekly rating what they should be focused on mainly anyways?
I get curious when it comes to PPV buys too. WWE averages 80-100 thousand on an average B level PPV and anywheres from 350-1 million buys on a major show like Royal Rumble or Wrestlemania. What leads to a good buy rate, one would think, would be how well did they sell the event. Did they make it worth paying money for?
UFC fight night on Spike had one of their highest ratings in March of this year, with a 1.5!! Averaging 2.2 million viewers. Can you imagine if Monday Night Raw did that?? They would be re-formatting the whole show, pushes would be stalled and extreme measures would be taken.
For UFC that was a reason to celebrate. You know why? It's a free event that on paper an average fan would see as "Meh, I'm not too sure about the card. I may or may not watch." and when it comes to UFC Pay Per View, they give you the top fights you want to see, that have not been watered down, and PROMOTE THE HELL OUT OF IT like it's the biggest event you'll ever see.
UFC has had no problem breaking one million buys more than once a year. They have the promoting down. WWE could learn from them. Don't focus on weekly ratings for FREE TV!! Instead take those hours that viewers are tuning in for free and sell them on the idea that "if you think what you're seeing here is intriguing, you're going to not even want to think about not paying to see where these angles go and the matches involved."
This is all common sense that anyone can figure out, but for some reason the offices at WWE can't seem to wrap their head around it.
Ratings do not equal money.
A good way to put it is, I have nothing but free stuff on this site. No matter how many people come to this site, or click on a link to come here, I receive no money whatsoever. If I were to try and make money, I would use the free entries to promote why you should spend your hard earned money on me and whatever it is I'm selling, and make it worthwhile that the word starts to spread about it and boom! I'm making money.
That's my general thoughts on the whole idea.
As for TNA....well...they're satisfied with a 1.2 rating. Probably because UFC pulls in similar ratings, now if they could pull in UFC like PPV numbers? Well then I'll be the guy that shits golden eggs.
Just for the record, I'm aware that some of my average numbers may be a little off, but I hope you get the idea ;)
Follow me on twitter @bradfordml
Until next time, keep it rockin'
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