Will the near worldwide launch of the WWE network on August 12th 2014 make or break the WWE’s gamble on breaking away from the traditional methods of broadcasting their media content?
The initial release of the network was US only, and whilst the WWE Network had some technical problems at the start with subscribers reporting lagging, crashing and not being able to authenticate, those problems seem to have minimised and the consensus now is the platform and service is quite stable and serves well for what it is.
Unfortunately there are some disgruntled subscribers out there complaining that there is a lack of content for the extensive collection that WWE possesses and getting that content available on the network is taking far too long.
The task at hand to get WWE’s massive collection of multiple feds, decades of weekly shows, pay per views, interviews and other content is a huge task, but I do know the internet community have managed to upload ALOT of WWE’s content themselves and not having available on a paid subscription would be frustrating.
The initial sales figures on the network were “disappointing” and “poor” according to some, but this is only early days, there are a lot of factors involved in why people won’t or can’t subscribe to the network and in the long run this is a great move for WWE to be able to completely take control of their product and its distribution and when August 12 unleashes this on 180 countries it will send it popularity soaring.
You can bank on some technical issues when the launch comes, the servers will be bombarded with requests for content, but if you bear with it and let it mature I believe the WWE is pioneering the way of the future for companies like them to deliver content to their loyal fans.
WWE Network can be purchased from wwe.com
Images source: WWE@Youtube