Source: PWInsider
– Last Friday’s Smackdown has drawn an overall 2.7 broadcast rating.
– Thanks to Eric Wade:
I can tell you right now at least partially why WWE PPV buys are “down” overall over the last 18 months: No bars carry it anymore. On Sunday I called over 30 clubs in Houston (3rd largest city in the US) and absolutely NO ONE was carrying it, and NO ONE is ever going to carry it again. The Reason: WWE has asked the Cable/Satellite providers to charge by the square foot, thus almost any club is being forced to pay in excess of $5,000 to carry the show. ALL of them carry UFC though, go figure…. As one owner told me quite frankly: “we lose our ass on WWE Pay Per Views”. He said that Comcast told him directly that “Pricing policies are set by WWE”. As a point of comparison, UFC cost them less than $1000.
