2 Cents: WWE Network Update

[Serujuunin]

I can't stand it! They took away the markers for when matches start/end, took away the autoplay features, and the list of videos it suggests for you once you're done with whatever you're watching isn't even related most of the time. The whole thing looks like some high school student's multimedia project, hosted on Dailymotion. It's cheap, lazy, and even harder to use than it was before, if that was even possible.

[Bob-O]

I messed with it a little bit last night.

I don't care for it yet, but I'm also not a fan of "different"... it's definitely different, and even in trying to keep an open mind I'm struggling to find differences that make it "better".

So far, I feel like the update was designed and green-lit by people that don't actually use it. I like the new design, it puts it on par with the top streaming aps, where before it came across a little dated - which would get somebody that doesn't actually use it pretty excited. For the amount of content it has, and people wanting to find very specific things on it quite often, I don't think it works. I feel like the search function got worse, and digging through manually is now a bigger pain in the ass... but it looks nice.

Again, maybe I just need to learn my way around it, but from the feedback I'm hearing elsewhere we're not alone. It's new, some growing pains are to be expected, and I'm sure they'll start ironing things out soon.

[Serujuunin]

I messed with it a little bit last night.

I don't care for it yet, but I'm also not a fan of "different"... it's definitely different, and even in trying to keep an open mind I'm struggling to find differences that make it "better".

So far, I feel like the update was designed and green-lit by people that don't actually use it. I like the new design, it puts it on par with the top streaming aps, where before it came across a little dated - which would get somebody that doesn't actually use it pretty excited. For the amount of content it has, and people wanting to find very specific things on it quite often, I don't think it works. I feel like the search function got worse, and digging through manually is now a bigger pain in the ass... but it looks nice.

Again, maybe I just need to learn my way around it, but from the feedback I'm hearing elsewhere we're not alone. It's new, some growing pains are to be expected, and I'm sure they'll start ironing things out soon.

There is legitimately a part of me that fears that they took some of the nice features away only to include them in a higher tier package. If I have to pay $2 more a month for auto play, I am going to be right pissed.

[Bob-O]

There is legitimately a part of me that fears that they took some of the nice features away only to include them in a higher tier package. If I have to pay $2 more a month for auto play, I am going to be right pissed.

From what I gather, the tiers will be content based.

[cero2k]

content is definitely the difference in tiers, from the programming point of view, it's a pain in the butt to restrict functionality per user level. What i'm curious about is if they're hoping that come next year's WM, people will be already accustomed to the tiers and make WM a VIP level show only

[Serujuunin]

content is definitely the difference in tiers, from the programming point of view, it's a pain in the butt to restrict functionality per user level. What i'm curious about is if they're hoping that come next year's WM, people will be already accustomed to the tiers and make WM a VIP level show only

That sounds like the scummiest move ever... so I could see someone suggest it at least, even if it doesn’t actually make it past the doors of the board room.

I’m willing to admit my reticence may be due to the fact that in general I am pretty resistant to things changing on me, but I don’t like anything so far about the update.

[Big Red Machine]

I haven't done too much with it, but on the whole I like the changes. I had been begging them to give an option to turn off the match beginning/ending tags since day one (the worst ones are when it also f*cking spoils the match when you accidentally move your mouse over it).
I like the new interface they have for finding WWE PPVs. They need to create a functional version of that for WCW and ECW, though.

[Big Red Machine]

content is definitely the difference in tiers, from the programming point of view, it's a pain in the butt to restrict functionality per user level. What i'm curious about is if they're hoping that come next year's WM, people will be already accustomed to the tiers and make WM a VIP level show only

That sounds like the scummiest move ever... so I could see someone suggest it at least, even if it doesn’t actually make it past the doors of the board room.

What's scummy about wanting to charge people more to see the biggest show of the year? When the Network was first launched everyone said "they're giving Mania away for the same $10 as every other show? How dumb are they? They're burning money." It's WWE's service and it's subject to change at their whims If you don't like the changes you have every right to cancel.

[Bob-O]

content is definitely the difference in tiers, from the programming point of view, it's a pain in the butt to restrict functionality per user level. What i'm curious about is if they're hoping that come next year's WM, people will be already accustomed to the tiers and make WM a VIP level show only

That sounds like the scummiest move ever... so I could see someone suggest it at least, even if it doesn’t actually make it past the doors of the board room.

What's scummy about wanting to charge people more to see the biggest show of the year? When the Network was first launched everyone said "they're giving Mania away for the same $10 as every other show? How dumb are they? They're burning money." It's WWE's service and it's subject to change at their whims If you don't like the changes you have every right to cancel.

Obviously nobody knows for sure until they do it, but the surveys they sent out leading up to this pointed to Wrestlemania being included in the mid-tier with the rest of the PPV's, with the main perk to the VIP tier being content from the sister-promotions.

I think it was Meltzer said the tentative plan a while back was:
Free Tier gave you access to the basic stuff like "This Week In WWE" and basically the little bits you can get on YouTube.
Low Tier would be like $5.99 and give you access to The Library
Mid Tier was basically what it is now but at one point it was going to be $11.99
VIP added more feds and free shipping from wweshop.com

Time limits got tossed around at one point as well. Like you'd have library access across the board, but for free they'd let you watch 30 minutes a month, Low you'd get 10 hours, mid/vip unlimited... I think I remember them asking how put off people would be by running non-wwe advertising... lots of stuff.

Like I said, I'm going off of memory and we won't know until they actually do it, but they've never hinted at Wrestlemania moving to a VIP exclusive. It's a market study, really. Like BRM said, "giving the biggest show of the year away for $10", but it boils down to where the sweet spot is. The cost to air the PPV on The Network is a fixed cost, so they have to decide whether moving any show to the VIP Tier would be worth the volume of subs lost by people not willing to pay for it. How many people are going to sign up for VIP just for Wrestlemania then cancel all together afterwords instead of sticking with mid-tier, how does it effect the Big Picture?

Barrios said in an interview that the tiered concept was more about introducing that cheaper "low" tier and driving volume and less about gauging people with the VIP one. That the VIP was more about "catering" to specific fans and keeping the cheaper tiers tailored to more of a Supply/Demand mindset to increase re-subs. A specific example being somebody like me, who would never go over 10 hours a month, might drop to the "low" tier instead of canceling all together which I consider doing every time I see it come out of my bank account... there's some months I might only watch one or two things and I have to ask myself if it's worth it for ~me~...

[NWK2000]

Pro: Finding specific matches by show or by wrestler is soo much better than the old way.
Con: Finding PPVs, old territory shows is a little goofier.
Eh, I'll get used to it I'm sure.

[Serujuunin]

What I mean by scummy is that they've been giving us Wrestlemania for this price for how long now, just to take it away and charge more. If that was the intention from the start, they maybe should have had the tier structure in place upon release (I bet they didn't because that would delay the release date and they just wanted to get the show on the road). That being said, if the mid tier is what I get now, for a similar price, and the benefit of the higher tier is stuff I probably wouldn't realistically watch, that's not so bad.

I suppose I should clarify that it's not the idea that I thought was scummy as much as the execution of the thing.