Wrestling, Yes *That* Wrestling, Is Changing the Content Game

It was announced yesterday that WWE (that wrestling thing that is fake yet is a pretty big business), is coming to AppleTV with it's own dedicated channel as they roll out their own streaming network.  I think first reaction for most would be to laugh but this is actually big news.  

Yes for most WWE is a joke, but like I said, it makes money.  Their revenue for 2012 was nearly half a billion dollars.  I thought they would have died out years ago but whenever they tour they sell out stadiums.  Bigger still, when they have a pay per view event, people actually pay to watch this stuff.   WWE knows that the Netflix model is what people want.  Instead of having to pay for one pay per view event each month that costs from $45-60, WWE lovers are will be able to pay a monthly fee of $10 and get those events along with a ton more and actually save money.  For example you might be able to pull up this epic fight where Hogan takes out Rick Flair from the archives.  

Personally I would never ever pay to watch this but there are a lot of people who do and will continue to do so.  When DirecTV who hosts a lot of these pay per view events heard the news, they were pissed and threatened to no longer offer pay per view wrestling events at all (cue sad violin).  This is DUMB because then DirecTV will get zero money and drive everyone to the streaming model, but this will happen eventually anyway.  

I said at the beginning of the year that we'd see the content delivery space start to rapidly change in 2014. I just didn't think it would be the WWE leading the charge.