WWE held their third quarter earnings conference call today. Michael Weiss opened the call and noted that Vince McMahon and George Barrios were on the line.

Vince McMahon said that the WWE had a strong earnings growth this quarter and that the big international growth is coming from television rights and the WWE Network and that the WWE Network is outdoing their former WWE pay-per-view revenue. Vince said that they added 85 hours of original content for the Network and ran down some of the programming, noting that the NXT shows do very well and then brought up the live special in Japan and noted that Breaking Ground just debuted on the WWE Network, there will be a NXT Takeover special from London, England and new episodes of WWE 24. Vince said that the global reach of the WWE Network will take a pretty good leap with the addition of the Indian sub-continent in November, as well as Japan and Germany in January 2016. Vince then put over WWE NXT again and said that the company have 37 new advertisers after the USA Network upfronts and pushed how popular their YouTube channel has become.

George Barrios took over the call and noted that they are working on 90 hours of new, original content for the WWE Network in the next quarter and will be doing more exclusive short-form videos on Facebook, YouTube and others. Barrios said that they will not give guidance on how they expected the WWE Network to grow, but noted that other streaming services at the same level and age grew at 22% and they feel that the WWE Network has a big growth potential as the entertainment landscape continues to change. The floor was then opened up for questions.

The first question asked why they gave such a strong suggestion for Network growth, given that they are advising their fourth quarter could be flat in comparison with the year before. Barrios noted that the Network’s growth, year to year, is more important than sequential numbers and said that SummerSlam did so well for them as almost a mini-WrestleMania creatively and on a business level that they expect this quarter did so well, the next quarter may not hit as high. The next question asked about plans to invest in 2016 and would that happen if the WWE Network growth drops. Barrios said that they are trying to balance how much of their earnings will trickle down to investments into technology and new markets and won’t know numbers until the new year. The same caller asked if the investments were necessary to which Barrios said that they believe acquiring new material is a long-term investment as they see them as assets for VOD and that they will be valuable for 2016 and beyond.

The next question asked about the credit card chip card issues Netflix has had and if it had an impact on the WWE Network. Barrios said that they have not seen anything that makes them believe that it has. The next question asked about the churn of the WWE Network subscriber base. Barrios said that they have hoped to change the behavior of buyers who wouldn’t buy the pay-per-views at the old price and that those who would want certain pay-per-views would change from coming in and out to remaining. The next question asked about potential new price tiers. Barrios said that they feel that the $9.99 price tag is easy to explain and market and that they could one day have multiple tiers and versions, but as of right now, they are happy with the current model.

The next question asked if they should continue to invest in original content given the numbers state that the subscribers are watching the pay-per-views and the older content more. Vince McMahon said that you need to be able to drive the viewers via the current and major live events and once you are subscribing, you sample and use the VOD material and they need to have multiple reasons for fans to want to subscribe and watch the WWE Network, not just one. Barrios stepped in and said that the reports that they had spent $20 million on new programming are fabricated. The next question asked about YouTube making their material available on the Red subscription page and whether it hurts the company’s own subscription model. Vince said that they view YouTube as a big asset globally and they used TV and cable distribution to grow their brand and that’s how they view social media and YouTube, they are places where people go to consume content and there is a balancing act of what content goes where and that they pioneered pay-per-view and they are doing that today with created short-form content, RAW and SmackDown on paid television and with the WWE Network subscription model. The next question asked about WWE Network ad revenue, which they noted is currently running and has a light touch, that they are experimenting and believe the brands that are working with them have found it intriguing.

The next question asked about the WWE RAW and WWE SmackDown ratings being down, what was causing it and what they were doing to battle that. Barrios said that they don’t think about one metric, not just one aspect and when they put everything all together, they are gauging the audience globally more than ever before and it’s hard to tell if it is cyclical or secular and don’t like being down and are working hard to battle that, but are doing better than anyone else on the pay TV scale and their ratings are higher than USA or SyFy across the board. They were then asked if they could share anything on plans to invest in 2016. Barrios said that it will probably be over time in different segments on content for the Network and the reason they are investing in emerging markets is that they have a great fanbase in India and believe there is a long tailwind there and are going to invest in China in 2016 and want to know that consumers are doing across the board and are investing more into the technology side. The next question asked about plans for the Tapout brand in 2016, to which they noted they were very excited about the brand but were not going to tip their hand yet.

The next question asked about their current TV home in Germany, to which they noted that their excited about as they were on a smaller pay TV home in the past. Barrios noted that German audiences don’t traditionally pay for TV content and that they are something of an anomaly compared to other countries such as the United Kingdom which will and that they are excited to see what the new partnership will lead to for the Network and other elements of the company. Barrios noted that they have been in China since 2007 and there have been more changes there over the last 12 months than there have been in 20 years thanks to the digital player and that they have an office there and are going to increase staff and other opportunities there. The next caller asked about NXT and why it has become so popular and whether there is a balance to prevent it becoming too popular. Barrios said that WWE NXT is a great example of all the new platforms fans use to consume talent and they believe that social media has a lot to do with it as they are on a Network that has 1.3 million subscribers and can sell out an arena the size of the Barclays Center and said that they don’t worry about it competing with WWE RAW and WWE SmackDown and said that if you go to a WWE NXT show, it has a different feel and audience compared to the main roster shows.