and will it kill the PPV business all together for wrestling?

should other companies try to get deals with other streaming services

Yeah it seems to be killing pay per view for wrestling. PPV providers are trying to fill the void WWE and TNA has left and of course New Japan and ROH are not getting the same buy rates. I know New Japan and ROH are happy about the number they're getting.

I think everyone is where they should be. Maybe New Japan should get another pay per view since Wrestle Kingdom did so well without having TV. And now they got TV here in America. But their World Pro Wrestling show has been showing old matches instead of building towards a July pay per view. But I don't know when season 2 starts so they still could.

It'll last because they'll make it last. They've invested too much into it now to not make it work.

And the PPV business is stale this day and age anyway. I couldn't afford to buy a £25 PPV every month, now I can get it for £9.99 a month PLUS every other damn PPV every xD

I'd honestly rather pay for that than search for shitty streams. This way wrestling profits.

Streaming/subscription services are the future, even though it could end up being stupidly expensive just to watch a handful of programs all on different services. Eventually wrestling companies will stick their PPV content across them. Only makes sense.

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You're absolutely right. Stupid promotion for it aside, the WWE Network actually is a fantastic product at a great value, and I feel like more people will catch onto that throughout the years. Companies are starting to realize how high demand is for streaming media now - Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, NBC, HBO and even YouTube will be offering on-demand and streaming services. TV is dying. Cable or satellite television is simply not a profitable medium for wrestling companies in the long-run. I'd like to see TNA get on board with a streaming service of its own (though I imagine it would be geared towards people who are already fans of the product, and may have difficulty bringing in new fans).

I don't know if I said it before but it does seem like ROH is going backwards. They became big because of the internet. Now they're becoming more and more of a TV company and they may even drop their VOD on their site.

I get why it's happening. They pissed off a lot of people when something went wrong with their IPPVs. UStream didn't want to do it anymore. And of course SBG is a TV company.

MFiSG wrote:

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You're absolutely right. Stupid promotion for it aside, the WWE Network actually is a fantastic product at a great value, and I feel like more people will catch onto that throughout the years. Companies are starting to realize how high demand is for streaming media now - Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, NBC, HBO and even YouTube will be offering on-demand and streaming services. TV is dying. Cable or satellite television is simply not a profitable medium for wrestling companies in the long-run. I'd like to see TNA get on board with a streaming service of its own (though I imagine it would be geared towards people who are already fans of the product, and may have difficulty bringing in new fans).

Totally dude. Even my Sky TV box here (our version of digital TV) has to offer a shit ton of on demand content, otherwise people just wouldn't bother. With the age of being able to record anything you wish without the need of VHS tapes or DVDs, people just watch stuff whenever they feel like it...less so huge live events, of course, but even then.

And TNA did have a WWE Network type service, that was more akin to WWE's Classics on Demand. It had every Impact episode on it, I believe, plus all their DVDs they've ever produced. You could also use it to stream the live PPVs, when they did them. I used it once for Lockdown, the one where Bully Ray joined Aces and Eights. It...was alright. The connections was very good and the whole look of the thing didn't feel precise. It was canned for reasons I don't know. So they could totally do it. I imagine if they offered a good price, it could be a viable option. Eventually any top wrestling promotion will do this and probably have to, as wrestling isn't the most beloved thing on TV any more.

Yes. It will probably cost a bit more by then, but yeah, they're far too invested to back out. There really isn't a way to go back to the old model at this point.

I think PPV for wrestling would be fine if other promotions get closer to WWE's level. Unfortunately, it's closest competition for paid wrestling in the USA is seen by 1/10th WWE's TV market.