Post by Booker Thee on Mar 11, 2005 7:23:48 GMT -5
pwinsider.com
"When I got back to my room today, I had a message waiting from a high level WWE employee who said, "Our cable programming is off Spike, we are going to USA". This off course refers to the cable shows that WWE offers weekly.
Spike has officially bowed out of negotiations with WWE, posting the following press release today."
NEW YORK, March 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Spike TV ends talks with the WWE. "After several months of negotiations, we have decided to end our discussions about extending our relationship with the WWE beyond September 2005. Moving forward, Spike TV will expand its investments in original programming and new acquisitions for its core audience."
The Hollywood Reporter has posted a story last night with added information as to why Spike TV chose to drop out of negotiations with the WWE for the rights to their cable TV programming. According to the report, WWE was asking Spike TV for a fee of about $40 million a year, which would be more than 40% above what Spike has paid WWE over the last five years (and it should be pointed out for a product that has vastly underperformed what it did on the USA Network). The piece also pondered whether paying for Raw made sense after Spike anted up big money for CSI and CSI: NY reruns.
"When I got back to my room today, I had a message waiting from a high level WWE employee who said, "Our cable programming is off Spike, we are going to USA". This off course refers to the cable shows that WWE offers weekly.
Spike has officially bowed out of negotiations with WWE, posting the following press release today."
NEW YORK, March 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Spike TV ends talks with the WWE. "After several months of negotiations, we have decided to end our discussions about extending our relationship with the WWE beyond September 2005. Moving forward, Spike TV will expand its investments in original programming and new acquisitions for its core audience."
The Hollywood Reporter has posted a story last night with added information as to why Spike TV chose to drop out of negotiations with the WWE for the rights to their cable TV programming. According to the report, WWE was asking Spike TV for a fee of about $40 million a year, which would be more than 40% above what Spike has paid WWE over the last five years (and it should be pointed out for a product that has vastly underperformed what it did on the USA Network). The piece also pondered whether paying for Raw made sense after Spike anted up big money for CSI and CSI: NY reruns.