Quote:
Originally Posted by WhawhaWhat
Wrestling fans have traditionally been seen by advertisers as stupid and cheap so the ad revenue is less despite having better ratings than other shows. We'll see how that changes with WWE now on network TV.
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To be fair to WWE, their ratings are enormous enough that the network which buys it can still bring in a respectable amount of total dollars just on sheer volume. A scripted drama with car commercials might have an ad rate 9-10 times higher, but their production costs are so much more expensive and the number of viewers for those expensive ads are a lot lower. It led to odd situations in the past where the WWE reportedly got bumped for Dog Shows and Tennis because the few old people who watch that are wealthy, but they wont have that issue with FOX because they need the inventory and the WWE can fill space more cheaply than the UFC.
So overall the two deals sort of make sense if FOX needs a shitton of filler for their various networks and hundreds of hours, while ESPN may only want a few hours every other week but they need to sell expensive ads.