Whatculture.com wrote:The UK WWE Network launch was halted at the last minute because of WWE negotiations with Sky. “It’s Sky that’s the issue,” Dave Meltzer confirmed on Wrestling Observer Radio,“WWE were in negotiations with Sky before for a TV station. They wanted a TV station, the deal didn’t get done, thats what held it up.”
“There’s several issues. They were in negotiations over putting it as a TV station. Sky when they made their deal, part of the deal was pay per views. They were aware that the network was coming in but that wasn’t until next year. Sky were already promoting Survivor Series at a certain price and WWE came in not even offering it at a lower price but offering it for free.”
The negotiations over the WWE / Sky partnership was what held up the initial Network launch which was meant to happen in October. Obviously the continued negotiations did not go well, leading the WWE to launch it alone on November 3rd. At the last minute (literally in the hours before launch) Sky said or did something that caused WWE to pull the launch. It’s possible that they went as far to get an injunction. This issue is that Sky had already started marketing their Survivor Series pay per view at a price point of £14.95. When WWE suddenly announced last Thursday that the UK would get Survivor Series free on WWE Network, at that point the Sky representatives needed to act in order to protect their business. By the intervention happening at the last minute, WWE have been seriously embarrassed. Meltzer states “I’d guess they’d figured it would get done by November 3rd, they were assuming it was going to get worked out and then it did not get worked out.”
The reason for WWE’s haste was because the US Network numbers had been so bad. They only had 731,000 subscriptions as of last week. The UK is WWE’s number two market, and the original launch for the UK Network had been January 2015. That was then changed to October 2014. WWE then changed it to November as the Sky talks were ongoing. Now there’s no clear launch date, but you’d have to imagine they’ll try for a January date again. It’s important for WWE to get this done for WrestleMania season. It’s also important that they launch soon in order to appease the disgruntled UK fans. WWE and Sky need to work this out quickly as both are being criticised right now. The US Network geo block actually did get removed in the UK earlier on Monday, but was quickly restored a few hours later.
“It could get worked out soon, we don’t know” Meltzer states.
WWE promised something and failed to deliver. The botched launch has seriously hurt their consumer base and there’s a huge bad feeling to the WWE in the UK right now. The timing couldn’t be worse for WWE, as they are due to tour the UK starting the fifth of November to the thirteenth. This will include Raw and Smackdown tapings. The always raucous UK crowd is sure to give WWE a piece of their mind – especially if the shows promote the Network for the US audience.
http://whatculture.com/wwe/uk-wwe-netwo ... hannel.phpPresumably these are all WWE sources; I guess Sky (through the Community Manager and Press Centre) felt they needed to get their side of the story out too - which is 'this has nothing to do with us'. Maybe this was some sort of power play by WWE in attempt to get Sky to pick up the Network as a TV channel & it's completely backfired. Who do you trust less to be telling the truth here - WWE or Sky...
That Sky would be unhappy that WWE are stepping on their toes with what would be the current contract does make sense though. The Network was supposed to have a 6 month commitment and be paid. The current offer has made Sky Box Office completely irrelevant. Nobody is spending £15 on this when it's available legally for free.
One thing Sky aren't is amateur hour. WWE however...well, is.
