An investment the size of The WWE Network is not going to yield dividends for a few years. It's a long term investment and WWE was going to see loses whatever way you try to dice it.
What this stat fails to mention is that WWE is multiple times larger than any other wrestling company in history. Substantially larger. Hell, it's larger than many of the other publicly traded companies out there that are trading higher than WWE was at their height a few months ago. Loses become amplified when the base value of the company is already extremely high. It's all relative.
But with all that said, this is definitely not good.
It's not good news for WWE at all...they should obviously never want to be losing money, but I think it's just par for the course when they continue to try and push themselves as something they simply are not. Vince has had this infatuation for the better part of his time as the head of a publicly traded company to have his baby viewed as something more than just wrasslin. He's made a number of poor investments and decisions over the years, but the strength of the product and it's superstars always seemed to keep the ship moving and lighten the blow of the likes of the XFL, WWE Studios and Tough Enough. But I think these types decisions are finally catching up with Vince. He's finally starting to learn that Wall Street doesn't opperate by his early 2000's creed of "Ruthless Aggression". Investors aren't ruthless because they aren't stupid, and they aren't going to be on board if something isn't working.
Between the launch of The WWE Network, the decline in cable providers offering the PPVs (thus less buys), and probably most importantly the lower than expected/desired NBC TV deal,WWE's projections for 2014 have been put in a bit of a pickle. While Vince has been trying for the better part of almost a decade and a half to push the mark in making WWE this Hollywood wanna-be company instead of just sticking to what they do best, they may have been in a better spot. If Vince spent half the energy he spends on these other endeavors towards producing solid story lines and character development, the week to week TV product may be good enough to support the company and they wouldn't need to rely on "other ground breaking entertainment". These "other forms of entertainment" cost money to get off the ground, and ultimately fail resulting in set backs.
They are a pro-wrestling company and I think too often he loses site of that. Sure, things like Total Divas has done well, but that's one of a whole slew of failed ideas WWE has thrown at the wall that actual stuck. Know what you are, and what you are - and thus your supporters - will know you.
