WWE News: Tier Pricing Options May Be Offered For WWE Network; HOF voting, TNA & ROH Could Be Included
The current setup of WWE Network offers an option where users can sign up for $9.99 per month and can cancel at any time. New users will get a first month free. Things have gone well for the first 2.5 years of the WWE Network, but it’s also important that the company changes it up a bit.
On last night’s Wrestling Observer Radio (available via subscription at wrestlingobserver.com), Dave Meltzer said that WWE is “strongly considering” tier pricing for the WWE Network going forward. I just listened to it and just based on what Meltzer said, they are very likely to go forward with this. It sounds like it is something WWE will roll out soon, but nothing is finalized yet.
A report by Mike Johnson of PWinsider noted that this is a survey that WWE will send out over the next several weeks.
Over on Reddit, a user named Mike10dude posted this graphic of what would be available under the four tiers.
As you can see from the plan options above, Plan 3 is what most people currently have although New Weekly NXT episodes live is not what WWE is currently doing. They tape NXT weeks in advance, so perhaps they might start doing live NXT shows although I would imagine the costs for that would be pretty high. I think “live” might just mean the airing on WWE Network on Wednesday nights at 8pmET.
Plan 1 is a stripped down version that is just there to entice people to spend money for more.
Plan 2 as the $4.99 version only offers four major PPVs in a year and you can’t watch it on a laptop.
Plan 4 is the one that will really get people talking because of the “Access to INDEPENDENT WRESTLING CONTENT” part that specifically lists TNA and Ring of Honor for $14.99, which is a price increase, but really not that much. That would be pretty significant for WWE to add that content onto their WWE Network. It could also be beneficial to those companies to sign some sort of deal with WWE to put their content on there because it would reach a much bigger audience than what they are currently doing. Of course the big issue right now is the uncertain future of TNA, if they are going to continue to exist into 2017 and what it would mean for the company if they continue on the path they are on. There are also companies like Evolve and Progress Wrestling that could be a part of streaming. WWE could seek out other companies too.
I like the option in Part 4 about “early ticket access” because it means if you spend the extra money you can have a shot at getting those great tickets close to the ring.
The other part of Plan 4 that might interest some fans is “Hall of Fame voting” because as far as we know, WWE just decides who goes into the HOF. We don’t get to vote. Giving fans the opportunity to vote for the Hall of Fame may make people care about it more.
For now, this is just one of those things that WWE “might” do in the future. Clearly they want people to talk about it if they leaked it to the Observer and PWInsider.
Analysis: I think it’s great. I’d probably get the $14.99 version if I had those choices because it’s really just 50 cents a day. I’ve been very happy with WWE Network so far. They have to do stuff like this to grow the Network.
Talk about it in the comments below. Let us know what you think.