Source: PWInsider

By Dave Scherer on 2016-01-05 12:25:02

The WWE Network is now officially available in Germany and Japan.

Those are two huge markets for the company and should add nicely to the Subscriber count when the First Quarter numbers are released later this year.

Opening in Japan just feels like insult to injury, i know it had been planned for a while, but timing just hurts

Japan & Germany should have been two of the first countries they targeted outside of the US, Mexico & UK markets, wrestling is just MASSIVE in these countries and always has been.

XIV wrote:Japan & Germany should have been two of the first countries they targeted outside of the US, Mexico & UK markets, wrestling is just MASSIVE in these countries and always has been.

Yeah. If I had to guess, it might have something to do with their TV deals in those countries. I seem to recall there being some issue when they first cleared in the UK about what could and couldn't air on the Network.

Big Red Machine wrote:

XIV wrote:Japan & Germany should have been two of the first countries they targeted outside of the US, Mexico & UK markets, wrestling is just MASSIVE in these countries and always has been.

Yeah. If I had to guess, it might have something to do with their TV deals in those countries. I seem to recall there being some issue when they first cleared in the UK about what could and couldn't air on the Network.

In the UK WWE have a long time deal with SKY Sports (RAW & Smackdown have been on SKY Sports consistently since at least 1998, but probably longer) Channel 4 until the mid 2000's had the PPV's FREE (I miss those days) & Shotgun & Heat etc.

However, since the mid 2000's, WWE has been exclusive with SKY. RAW, Smackdown, Main Event, Superstars and thier PPV's are through SKY Sports (And SKY Sports Box Office).

That would have been the only hurdle to cross because of all that exclusivity through one provider, but the kicker is this. At this time, the WWE Network can't be received on any TV's in the UK, it's only available through the internet (which of course some TV's now have). But their were early restrictions which have been lifted I believe because now it's the WWE distributing their own product, and ultimately it won't hurt SKY or have taken much money out of their pocket at all because SKY's sports package is mainly based hugely around Football (Soccer) and then has the kickers of Rugby, Formula 1 Racing, NFL (which is slowly becoming massive over here, go Dolphins) & British sports like Darts & Cricket.

However, with Germany & Japan being larger countries, there is still alot more hurdles to go through because of different regions having different channels and networks and deals and not being under one umbrella like the UK, you're right, it would probably have been alot harder to negiotiate deals with however many network providers.