WWE records growing returns in first quarter

John Cena (R) competes with Triple H during the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) Greatest Royal Rumble event in the Saudi coastal city of Jeddah on April 27, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / STRINGERSTRINGER/AFP/Getty Images less John Cena (R) competes with Triple H during the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) Greatest Royal Rumble event in the Saudi coastal city of Jeddah on April 27, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / STRINGERSTRINGER/AFP/Getty ... more Photo: STRINGER / AFP /Getty Images Photo: STRINGER / AFP /Getty Images Image 1 of / 9 Caption Close WWE records growing returns in first quarter 1 / 9 Back to Gallery

WWE saw its earnings rise in the first quarter, driven by marked growth across its digital platforms, according to its latest earnings report released Thursday.

Revenues for the Stamford-based company increased 5 percent from a year ago, to nearly $188 million, not including the impact of a new financial-reporting standard. Profits reached $14.8 million, compared with $900,000 in the first quarter of 2017.

“It was a pretty strong operating and financial performance,” WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon said in an earnings call Thursday. “Raw and SmackDown (WWE’s flagship weekly shows), along with all of our social and digital media, continue to push a lot of this, in terms of our performance.”

In the past quarter, WWE marked the 25th anniversary of Monday Night Raw, which has ranked as the highest-rated program on its host channel, USA Network, for 20 of the past 25 years.

During the past quarter, digital-video views increased 56 percent, to 6.7 billion. Total hours of content consumed increased 69 percent, to 243 million, across digital and social-media platforms.

Among new digital initiatives, WWE launched on Facebook Watch “Mixed Match Challenge,” a live in-ring series, which has generated more than 35 million views.

WWE remains the No. 1 sports channel on YouTube, garnering 50 million views the day after WrestleMania 34, WWE’s marquee annual event, which was held April 8 at the New Orleans Superdome.

The total subscriber base for WWE Network reached 2.12 million the day after WrestleMania 34, a 9 percent increase from the day after WrestleMania 33.

One analyst, The Benchmark Co.’s Mike Hickey, questioned during the earnings call why the digital growth had not translated into more network subscriptions.

“Why don’t we see that more obvious bridge from that sort of activity to driving your overall subscriber growth in the network?” Hickey said.

The digital gains are supporting network growth, said WWE Co-President George Barrios. “We can be better at it… so we continue focusing on that because we do think there’s even more opportunity, given the scale,” Barrios said. “But even today, when you look at the growth of the network, a large part of it is driven by those platforms.”

Among other milestones, WWE held April 27 its Greatest Royal Rumble in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The sell-out event at the approximately 60,000-capacity King Abdullah Sports City stadium kicked off a 10-year partnership between WWE and the Saudi government.

“A lot of the logistics around the form that the partnership will take, we’re still working through that, but we’re super excited,” Barrios said.

WWE shares closed Thursday at $41.39, up about 4 percent from their Wednesday closing total.

pschott@scni.com; 203-964-2236; Twitter: @paulschott