WWE Reveals First Quarter Earnings, Vince McMahon ‘Pleased’

WWE sent out a press release revealing the company’s first quarter earnings. Some key highlights include the following:

First Quarter 2018 Highlights

• Revenues reached $187.7 million, which was on-par with Q1 2017 (increasing 5% on a comparable year-over basis the impact of ASC Topic 606 in Q1 2018)¹
• Operating income was $21.8 million ($29.0 million on a comparable basis) as compared to $4.0 million in the prior year quarter
• Adjusted OIBDA² increased 40% to $35.2 million (increasing 68% to $42.4 million on a comparable basis)
• WWE Network average paid subscribers³ increased 5% to 1.56 million paid subscribers, consistent with the Company’s guidance
• Digital video views increased 56% to 6.7 billion and hours consumed increased 69% to 243 million across digital and social media platforms⁴

Selected WrestleMania Highlights

• WrestleMania (April 8, 2018) broke the record for the Mercedes-Benz Superdome’s highest grossing entertainment event at $14.1 million, attracting 78,133 fans
• WrestleMania hit a record 2.12 million global households on WWE Network alone, making it the most-watched WrestleMania in history
• WWE Network subscribers viewed 25.2 million hours during WrestleMania week or 14 hours per subscriber during the week. This compares to 22.5 million hours last year, a 12% year-over-year increase
• During WrestleMania week, 13.9 million hours were consumed on digital and social media platforms, up 27% from the prior year; April 9 was WWE’s most viewed day ever on YouTube with more than 50 million views

Vince McMahon was also quoted in the press release saying the following:

“We’re pleased with our continued success in creating and monetizing our content as evidenced by another record-breaking WrestleMania, which set new highs for network subscribers and viewership,” said Vince McMahon, WWE Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “We will continue to focus on broadening our global audience across multiple platforms, providing the basis for significant growth.”

To read the full press release in PDF format, you can do that by going here.

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