USA Network Happy With WWE's Third Hour Of RAW, WWE's Feelings On Their Network And More
WWE CFO George Barrios participated in the 40th annual UBS Global Media Conference in New York City on Monday and said the company is very focused on creating new content, according to a transcript on SeekingAlpha.com.
It doesn't sound like WWE will be taking RAW back to two hours anytime soon. Barrios touted that the third hour of RAW is up 35% versus the programming that was airing in its place on the USA Network. He added that USA is very happy with that. Barrios also noted that Saturday Morning Slam on the CW Network is up 50% over what it replaced and Main Event on Ion is up about 15% from the programming it replaced.
Barrios also talked about five major deals that WWE has coming up for renewal over the next few years, ones that he is confident about – RAW on USA, SmackDown on SyFy, BSkyB in the UK, Taj TV in India and Mattel.
Barrios briefly discussed the WWE Network but didn't really say anything new from what we've heard already. He mentioned that WWE feels there is too much there in a potential Network not to keep pushing at it. WWE believes the payoff could be too large to give up on it and continue to push on that.