OttoBlog
2007/02/13: WWE Conference Call




Here's some of the highlights from today's conference call. I'll leave out things that were obvious from reading this morning's earning press release. I didn't ask any questions this time since (1) I think I have the flu and feel like crap, and (2) I didn't have anything worth asking.

They started with Michael White VP of Investor Relations for WWE with a short intro.

He turned it over to Linda McMahon.

She highlighted the positives and gave excuses for negatives (mostly blaming the ECW house shows and lack of TV revenue compared to last year).

WWE 24/7 got a ton of new subscribers when they added Comcast and CableVision.

ECW's current contract on Sci-Fi is through December 2007.

Traffic to WWE.com is up 60% over last year.

The Marine made $18M in theaters and is doing well in DVD sales.

"The Condemned" with Steve Austin is still scheduled for a 2007/04/27 release.

Mike took over the next part.

He gave financial results, excluding ECW to make it seem more impressive.

International PPV buys now represent 39% of purchases. Since other countries don't pay much for PPVs, that meant overall PPV revenue was down.

WWEshop.com revenue is up 50% compared to last year.

WWE.com averaged 16.4M unique visitors per month and 42M video streams per month.

2Q07 should be the first quarter where they see any income from any of the movies.

Michael took over from Mike.

== Q&A ==

Q: International Live Event strategy: more or less overseas live events? Any ECW?

A: Planning to go up to 68 overseas live events. Possibly adding new countries to tour. Probably never more than 70-75 overseas events in any given year. He didn't answer anything about ECW.

Q: Online sales force. Any traction?

A: Increased sales staff from 4 to 12 people. There are still five open positions. Offices in New York and Chicago.

Q: Any competition from UFC? Any results from Jakks/THQ lawsuit? Movies?

A: UFC is growing. It is a real sport and is stealing more boxing fans than WWE fans. Doesn't think there is much impact on WWE PPVs. The lawsuit is progressing slower than they'd like, but results have been looking in WWE's favor. They shipped 1,000,000 more video games than the previous year, thanks to "Xbox360 and Playstation 2". WWE is interested in making direct-to-home video movies. 1-2 films per year.

Q: Cost of transitioning to calendar year?

A: Absorbed the transition cost of an extra audit (around $1,000,000).

Q: Steve Austin under a 3-picture deal. Will one of these be sooner than later?

A: One of the scripts they're reading now is also being read by Steve Austin.

Q: Is Steve's "Condemned" character franchisable, or would he play a different character?

A: The script they're reading isn't the same character, but both are carbon copies of his in-ring character.

Q: Is there a co-financing deal with Genius/Weinstien? International markets? Asia, Latin America?

A: Genius is not co-financed. International markets: Planning to open Panama, Mexico, China in 2007. Plus far east asia and Russia.

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