With various professional wrestling fans from the United Kingdom and Ireland asking me via Twitter and e-mail as to when the WWE Network would be available through Sky, it appears there is some bad news, for now.
In speaking with Sky representatives, who have often been keen to help inform us of any changes to WWE’s schedule of events per month, there are no such plans as of writing for the WWE Network to air outside of the United States and will not be available to Sky TV subscribers for now, however WWE programming such as WWE RAW, WWE SmackDown, WWE NXT, WWE Superstars, WWE Bottom Line, WWE Afterburn and WWE Vintage Collection along with various WWE Specials, will continue to be carried on Sky Sports channels as per the company’s existing agreement in place with World Wrestling Entertainment. Sky TV noted that unlike their Sky Sports F1 HD channel scheduled to launch in March, they currently have no carraige rights for the WWE Network and that any other queries should be directed towards the WWE themselves.
What makes this really odd is in speaking to Sky TV representatives at the beginning of the month, I was informed that if Sky TV subscribers were subscribed to both Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports 2, they would receive the WWE Network automatically in 2012 and otherwise it would be £10 or €12 per month without a subscription to the above channels. With Sky TV asking their subscribers to contact WWE about the WWE Network and the WWE asking their fanbase in the United Kingdom and Ireland to contact their local TV provider, it certainly is a messy situation and seems that as of writing, the WWE Network will only be launching in North America.
Not happy about this at all, Surely WWE will offer UK fans all of the programming or at least some of it Online somehow?
The WWE actually earn a lot of their earnings in the UK, in fact I heard that when they tour outside of the US, the UK is the place they make the MOST money so this baffles me massively, everybody knows Vince is greedy for the dollar, so I’m pretty sure at some point, some way WWE Network will be branched out other than just North America, including the UK, the only problem about that is the deal they have & have had with Sky for years, either they’d have to make a deal with Sky to use the Sky service as a way of airing the WWE Network or wait until any deals are up & go their own way, either way it’s ridiculous to hear that they’ve not even thought about bringing the network to the UK, when like mentioned above, we are one of WWE’s biggest money earning market.
The Network will not only air certain PPV’s as part of the package (some obviously will still be at extra cost) but lots of vintage stuff, the weekly shows, WWE films & also new programmes such as the WWE Legends House (Big Brother type thing) they were doing, which sounds great! something we in the UK REALLY don’t want to miss out on.
If only WWE would be more closer connected to their audiences with outlets & a service for fan interaction with the company, then they would know this & we’d also have better answers than being thrown from pillar to post.
Terrible!!