– WWE released their full First Quarter 2019 financial results today.
Revenues for the quarter were $182.4 million, down from $187.7 million in the same quarter last year. The company reported a net loss of $8.4 million, or $0.11 per share, as compared to a profit of $14.8 million, or $0.18 per share, in the first quarter of 2018. This decrease was primarily driven by the drop in live event revenue and lower merchandise sales.
“During the quarter, we continued to execute our strategy and achieved targeted financial results,” said WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon. “While engagement metrics over the past two quarters were impacted by Superstar absences, we believe they will improve as our talent return and we launch our new season following a successful WrestleMania. We remain excited about the future, particularly with our debut on Fox in October.”
WWE feels that the talent absences led to Raw and SmackDown TV ratings falling 14% and 13% from the prior year quarter, and for the average live attendance in North America declining 11%.
– The WWE Network averaged 1.584 million paid subscribers in the first quarter of 2018, according to today’s Q1 2019 WWE earnings report. That number is up 1.7% from the 1.558 million average subscribers from the prior year quarter. Average paid domestic subscribers was up 1.8%, with 1.157 million in Q1 as opposed to 1.136 million in the same quarter last year.
While average paid subscribers were up in the first quarter, WWE projects to average approximately 1.70 million subscribers for the second quarter, a 5% decline from Q2 2018. WWE announced that they reached 2 million total subscribers (free and paid) on the day after WrestleMania 35 on April 8th. That is a 6% drop from the 2.124 million paid subscribers following last year’s WrestleMania.
For the end of the first quarter of 2019, WWE had 1.643 million total subscribers (free and paid), down 2.2% from 1.681 million subscribers in Q1 2018. The number of total paid subscribers was approximately 1.597 million (1.172 million domestic, 425,000 international), a 1.6% from 1.624 million in the prior year quarter.
Total U.S. subscribers for the quarter were 1.205 million (down 2% from Q2 2018), while international subscribers were 438,000 (down 2.5%). Paid U.S. subscribers for the quarter were 1.172 million (down 1.5% from Q2 2018), while international paid subscribers for Q1 were 425,000 (down 2%).
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