NBCU-Peacock Looking At Specific Numbers For WWE PLE Shows
There is some new information in terms of how NBCU-Peacock looks at how well WWE Premium Live Events are doing on their service.
It was in January 2021 when WWE and NBC Universal’s Peacock service announced that WWE Network was moving to Peacock in the United States. The WWE Network service launched in February 2014, which meant all WWE pay-per-views would air live and on-demand there. It was a cheaper alternative to past PPV shows because the events aired at $9.99 US.
Since launching on Peacock, WWE fans can watch shows there at an even lower rate because Peacock is available for as low as $5 for some customers while many people got it for free based on what cable system you had.
In the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer wrote that NBCU and Peacock are looking at how well WWE shows do within 24 hours instead of just how they perform live.
“When it comes to the Peacock major shows, NBCU has told WWE that the number they look at mainly is viewership number after 24 hours. It’s not a thing about live, and they’ve noticed that for some of the shows outside North America that start earlier, that they may not get as many viewers because they aren’t in prime time live, but it’s about people watching over the next 24 hours.”
“My thought is that if you have the results already, you are less likely to spend $50-80 for a replay, although AEW has been doing extremely well for replay buys. But for a Peacock subscriber that likes WWE, even if they get the results, it’s a big show and people will watch not live because it’s about the entire story and the entertainment and not just winning and losing.”
Unfortunately, those Peacock-WWE numbers are never made public in terms of how many people watched a specific Premium Live Event. However, WWE has sent out multiple press releases throughout the year about their PLE events being the “most watched in history” on a monthly basis.
WWE Presents Payback On Peacock-WWE Network
The next WWE Premium Live Event is called Payback and it airs this Saturday, September 2nd. It’s available on Peacock for those of you in the US along with WWE Network everywhere else. Here’s the announced lineup so far.
* World Heavyweight Championship: Seth “Freakin” Rollins vs. Shinsuke Nakamura
* Women’s World Heavyweight Championship: Rhea Ripley vs. Raquel Rodriguez
* Steel City Street Fight for the WWE Tag Team Championships: Sami Zayn & Kevin Owens vs. Damian Priest & Finn Balor
* United States Championship: Rey Mysterio vs. Austin Theory
* LA Knight vs. The Miz
* Steel Cage Match: Becky Lynch vs. Trish Stratus
* Grayson Waller Effect talk show with Cody Rhodes as the guest
You can watch WWE Payback on Saturday, September 2, at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT, streaming LIVE on Peacock in the United States and on WWE Network everywhere else.
It has been reported that John Cena will likely be at Payback as well, but it hasn’t been officially announced by WWE yet. Cena will appear on Smackdown tonight.