World Wrestling Entertainment Expands WWE 24/7 SVOD Service, Signing Insight Communications, Click! Network and MetroCast Cablevision
STAMFORD, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 31, 2005--WWE(R) announced today that it has expanded the reach of WWE 24/7(TM) in the United States through agreements with another leading MSO and industry innovator, Insight Communications. Click! Network, and MetroCast have also inked carriage deals.
The announcement was made today by Peter Clifford, Vice President, WWE Affiliate Sales. "WWE 24/7 continues to increase its distribution across North America. We're committed to working hands-on with some of the best and brightest promoters of advanced digital services to create new revenue streams and promote the On-Demand platform. With a footprint covering some of the most passionate WWE fans in the entire country, Insight is a perfect fit for our product. We take great pride in partnering with a true Cable pioneer and another aggressive proponent of new On-Demand products and services."
"Launching WWE as a subscription on demand service is a win-win for us," said Melani Griffith, Insight's Vice President of Programming. "Fans who feel passionately about the sport will now have a real incentive to take advantage of technology that they may not have used previously, thereby helping us to familiarize our customers with the benefits of on-demand programming. And, it provides us with a new revenue stream."
Insight is the ninth largest MSO in the United States, with 1.3 million subscribers across Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio. New England regional operator, MetroCast Cablevision will deliver the WWE subscription product across communities in New Hampshire and Maine. Click! Network, the highly aggressive marketer in the Tacoma, WA area, is also coming onboard.
"WWE 24/7 has been a great addition and product differentiator to our On Demand product," stated Cyndi Wikstrom, Marketing & Operations Director for Click! Network. "The WWE 24/7 product has fired up our customer-care staff, and sales have immediately soared because of the enthusiasm around the launch."
"WWE 24/7 fills a previously vacant niche in MetroCast's rapidly expanding VOD offering," said Steve Murdough, MetroCast's VP and General Manager. "We are very encouraged by the results we have seen since launching the program."
Other affiliates currently offering WWE 24/7 in the U.S. are Cox Communications, Blue Ridge Communications, RCN, Sunflower Broadband, Massillon Cable TV, and SELCO (Shrewsbury Electric and Cable Operations).
WWE 24/7 is a subscription video on demand service being made available worldwide through cable and satellite multi-channel television providers and leveraging WWE's 75,000-hour library, the largest of its kind in the world, featuring the leading wrestling and other sports entertainment brands and programming.
WWE has aggregated the best of professional wrestling television by strategically acquiring the libraries of a host of other national and regional promoters, including WWE, WCW(R), ECW(R) and AWA(R). WWE 24/7 takes approximately 20 hours of the best of this past cable, broadcast, pay-per-view and home videos and makes it available anytime per month -- refreshing four to five new hours per week on average.
BREAKING NEWS ON WWE Draft Lottery! ECW to crash the draft???? FULL STORY>>> click here