Live & Televised Entertainment


Live events and television programming are our principal creative content and production activities. Our creative team develops compelling and complex characters and weaves them into dynamic storylines that combine physical and emotional elements. Storylines are usually played out in the ring and unfold on our weekly television shows, and culminate in our monthly pay-per-view events.

Our success is due primarily to the continuing popularity of our Superstars and Divas. We currently have 150 Superstars and Divas under exclusive contracts, ranging from multi-year guaranteed contracts with established Superstars to developmental contracts with our Superstars in training. Our Superstars and Divas are highly trained and motivated independent contractors, whose compensation is tied to the revenue that they help generate. WWE Superstars and Divas include “Monday Night Raw’s” John Cena, Rey Mysterio, The Miz, Big Show, Alberto Del Rio, CM Punk, Kofi Kingston, Eve and Kelly Kelly; “Friday Night SmackDown’s” Undertaker, Randy Orton, Sheamus, Mark Henry, Layla and Alicia Fox. We own the rights to substantially all of our characters and exclusively license the rights we do not own through agreements with our Superstars and Divas. We continually seek to identify, recruit and develop additional talent for our business.

Television Programming


Relying on our in-house production capabilities at our technologically advanced, high definition, production facility, we produce six hours of original weekly programming, 52 weeks per year. This programming is distributed domestically, internationally and via WWE.com. Our domestic programs are: “Monday Night Raw” on USA Network and mun2; “A.M. Raw” on USA Network; and “Friday Night SmackDown” on Syfy and mun2. “WWE NXT” and “WWE Superstars” are available on WWE.com and distributed to more than 60 countries internationally. In the third quarter of 2011, WWE’s TV programs reached nearly 12 million total viewers during the average week in the United States.

“Monday Night Raw” is a two-hour primetime program that is broadcast live on USA Network. It is among the most-watched regularly scheduled programs on primetime cable television and anchors USA, helping make it a top-rated network. As part of the agreement with USA Network’s parent company, NBC Universal, “Monday Night Raw” also airs in replays on mun2 and Universal HD.

The two-hour “Friday Night SmackDown” airs on Syfy in primetime on Fridays. “SmackDown” is regularly Syfy’s most-watched program every week and was the most-watched regularly scheduled program on primetime cable Friday nights among males under 65 in the third quarter of 2011. “SmackDown” has become the second longest running weekly episodic program in primetime TV history, only behind “Monday Night Raw."

“WWE NXT” transitioned to WWE.com domestically in Fall 2010. Since the launch of the microsite, WWE NXT videos have generated more than 9.6 million streams.

Each year, more than 7,500 hours of WWE’s television programming can be seen in more than 145 countries and 30 languages around the world.Our broadcast partners include: BSkyB in the UK; Sky Italia, GXT, Italia 2 and Cielo in Italy; Sport 1 and Sky Deutschland in Germany; SIC, Sport TV in Portugal; Groupe AB and Canal + in France; TV10 in Sweden; 2x2 in Russia; Extreme Sports Channel in Poland; Nova Sports in Greece; Viasat6 in Hungary; TV2 in Norway; STB in Ukraine; Sport RO in Romania; Eurosport across Europe; e.tv in South Africa; Ten Sports in India; J SPORTS, TVK, TVS, SUN-TV, FTV, MXTV, TKU MTV, GYT, GBS, CTC and GTV in Japan; SITV, GDTV, SZTV, JSTV, SXTV, TJTV, HEBTV, FJTV, HNTV and BesTV in China; TV3 and ASTRO in Malaysia; Foxtel and Network Ten in Australia; Sky TV in New Zealand; ABS-CBN and Solar in the Philippines; Starhub and MediaCorp in Singapore; CJ Media and FX Channel in South Korea; Videoland in Taiwan; TrueVision in Thailand; Sport 1 in Israel; E-Vision in the UAE; ADTV, Orbit Showtime Network, and MBC in the Middle East; Televisa, TV Azteca, PCTV and MVS in Mexico; FX Channel throughout Latin America; Red Pat in Bolivia; Esporte Interativo in Brazil; UCVTV in Chile; Antena Latina in the Dominican Republic; Teleamazonas in Ecuador; Salvadorena in El Salvador; Albavision in Guatemala, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Paraguay, and Peru; Televicentro in Honduras; Medcom in Panama; Wapa in Puerto Rico and SCCN in Suriname.

Pay-Per-View Programming

WWE has been the world’s pre-eminent provider of pay-per-view programming for the past 27 years. In 2011, WWE will televise 13 live pay-per-view events. Our pay-per-view productions consistently rank among the highest selling live event programs in the industry. WrestleMania XXVII, live on pay-per-view April 3, 2011 from the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, generated more than one million pay-per-view buys.

Our international pay-per-view partners include: Sky Box Office in the UK; SkyItaliain Italy; Sky Deutschland in Germany; Sogecable (Taquilla), Cableuropa (ONO) and Telefonica in Spain; Cablevision, Sky Mexico, Multimedios Redes, Megacable and Cinepolis in Mexico; DirecTV Latin America in Chile, Ecuador and Peru; Digital Latin America (DLA) throughout Latin America; SKY Perfect TV! and J:COM in Japan; Main Event in Australia; SKY Arena in New Zealand; Canal + in France; StarHub in Singapore; Sky Pacific in Fiji; Astro Box Office Sport in Malaysia & Brunei; Orbit Showtime Network and E-Vision in the Middle East.

Live Events


Our three brands, “Monday Night Raw,” “Friday Night SmackDown” and “WWE NXT,” allow us to perform more than 325 live events a year within the United States and abroad. In the third quarter of 2011, WWE held 64 live events domestically and 15 internationally, entertaining approximately 425,000 fans.

Venue Merchandise

Our direct merchandise operations consist of the design, sourcing, marketing and distribution of numerous WWE-branded products, such as T-shirts, caps and many other novelty items, all of which feature our Superstars, Divas and logos. In the third quarter of 2011, fans attending our domestic live events spent an average of $10.18 on our merchandise.

WWE Classics On-Demand

“WWE Classics On Demand” is a Subscription Video On-Demand (SVOD) service that offers highly-rated classic television shows, best-selling pay-per-view events, specials and original programming. The service draws its material from WWE's extensive 100,000 hour video library, the largest of its kind in the world, and includes other iconic wrestling brands, such as WCW, ECW and AWA. “WWE Classics” subscribers have access to approximately 50 hours of content each month.

WWE Classics is currently distributed with 18 of the top 20 MSOs in the United States, making it available to approximately 80 percent of SVOD-enabled subscribers. Major North American distributors currently include: Comcast Communications; Cox Communications; Charter Communications; Cablevision; Mediacom; Insight; Rogers Communications; Suddenlink; Verizon Communications; Bresnan Communications and RCN. “WWE Classics” is internationally distributed as well.