Gerrit Meier, President of WWE

On the sidelines of a live Dune Bash event organised by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in Dubai, Vibhuti Arora caught up with Gerrit Meier, President of WWE, for an exclusive insight into the network’s entertainment content and its MENA business strategy

How has WWE grown in terms of production and reach?

The number of live events has been growing for us. We organise close to 350 to 400 live events annually, right from WrestleMania to NXT and everything in between. Not all of our shows are broadcast, but we also have our pay-per-view shows and our specials done on the network together with our pay-per-view TV partners. In all, we have 12 main events produced for TV or for audio visual distribution.

In terms of the number of shows, we have grown dramatically over the past few years. The quality of our shows has also been enhanced significantly by using new technology. We have been experimenting with 360 and virtual reality. We have also incorporated new production methods with new camera angles, such as corner buckles of the ring itself, and played around with drones.

Vince McMahon, our CEO, who created pay-per-view years ago with WrestleMania, actually innovated dramatically in the coverage of sports events. A lot of those camera angles and production values are still being used by us and WWE’s sports franchise NFL.

We have grown in terms of geography as well. We are now in so many different countries, hosting live events and broadcasting out of those countries.

Can you shed light on your digital strategy?

We have a number of production verticals. Our core programming involves five hours of television broadcast a week, 52 weeks a year. Monday Night RAW and SmackDown are principally broadcast by our TV partners such as OSN, Sky UK and Ten Sports in India.

Our pay-per-view specials go through the WWE Network, which was launched two years ago. We have been developing our digital offerings through a number of programmes. WWE Network is purely an OTT platform, launched as a premium subscription service for $9.99 per month, and is available all over the world except China. In the Middle East, it is available as OSN WWE Network, both as a standalone OTT service to be paid for by subscribers and to those who have the OSN platinum package.

We also distribute medium- to short-form content through YouTube or other advertising-supported models SVOD (subscription video on demand) and AVOD (advertising video on demand). WWE has the largest YouTube channel in the world, with 8bn views and 650m social followers on Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms. We are now in over 600m TV households, and globally accessible via OTT platforms directly as well as through partners.

Who is your target audience?

We like to appeal to a broad spectrum of audience belonging to different age groups and demographics. Our male to female split in terms of viewership is 65 to 35, which is schewed towards females for certain shows that are targeted at women, such as Total Divas. We cater to a core group of 8-13-year-olds; however, typically we tend to lose our audience in the teenage bracket because of interest in other sports. We also see the audience return after they turn 18.

Our shows are growing in popularity as family entertainment, with grandparents watching the shows with their grandchildren, families and couples with young children. One sees changing demographics of WWE viewers around the world. The fan base is growing through all of this.

Are these fights for real?

We are a sports entertainment company and we tell a story. Our shows follow a storyline akin to a soap opera. These are based on a script. Having said that, not all of the action on our shows is scripted, as the fights are real from an action perspective. Our superstars in the ring are real. They suffer injuries, which are real as well. Based on a broad storyline, we provide content that is engaging to the viewers.

How do you manage to retain international appeal?

Our shows revolve around the basic principle of good versus evil, which works throughout the world. Some of the most successful films of our time and the superheroes, be it Avengers, Iron Man or Superman, are based on the principle of good versus evil. We use that as a peg and create a compelling storyline around it to engage the audiences.

The creative aspect of our shows is very important, which means we start with a good script and gradually build the story with live action on it.

Another factor that contributes to regional appeal is to have local talent. But we only regionalise our matches to a certain extent; local content doesn’t have the same appeal as our international stars. Most of the fans across the world want to see the global superstars. Irrespective of the nationalities, our global superstars are popular throughout the world.

Where are the matches held? Where does most of the production take place?

We travel. We have live TV programmes for Mondays and Tuesdays, which are shot in different cities in the United States, in different arenas. We have five matches in a row every day of the week, but the matches on Monday and Tuesday are broadcast live, so they are produced with appropriate lighting and production facilities. Once a month, the Sunday show is a pay-per-view event, so we are on TV three days in a week. The cities that we shoot in are 100 miles from each other, so our trucks and crew can travel and make the jump to the next week’s venue in time.

A couple of times in a year, we take these production capabilities abroad. We will be shooting in London after the Dubai tour and then go on a European tour. We also have a production company that sources equipment for us internationally and we also work with our local TV partners globally.

What is your strategy for the Middle East? How important is this region to WWE?

The region has welcomed us with open arms and we have been growing steadily in popularity and reach. Our objective is to sustain that growth. We have signed a number of deals over the last few years, the most prominent of those being our deal with OSN as a broadcast partner and our network partner, where we work closely with OSN for our live events as well. We have also partnered with MBC to broadcast our content.

Besides these, our global partnership with Mattel gives us the opportunity to grow our fan base, which in turn leads to increased TV viewership and network subscriptions.

We are looking at the Middle East market from a consumer product perspective, which involves direct-to-retail offerings. The region works on a centralised mall retail structure, hence a retail offering seems like the best fit for the market.

Another way of engaging the local market is by bringing local talent to the region. We had try-outs a couple of years ago and selected talents from the region.

Yet another way is by localising content using the local Arabic language. We are engaging viewers on social media and digital platforms through short-form content as well. This has seen a significant growth in just over a year. Last year we had 700,000 followers on social media from the region, which now stands at 3m and growing.

We have organised several shows in the region, in Abu Dhabi, Jeddah and Riyadh. We also plan to go to Qatar and other markets and have recurring regular shows there as part of the WWE Universe. Live events connect us directly with our fans.

Which are the most important Middle East markets for you?

The UAE, KSA and Qatar, as well as Egypt, are the key markets. We see huge potential in North Africa. Turkey is another new market that has seen significant growth.

What are the main challenges for you?

In addition to the general production challenges that involve lights, sound, cameras, to host shows at such a large scale is challenging. These are huge undertakings. There is music, video and lot of activities in that space, with hundreds and thousands of audience watching. Managing a live show and keeping everyone interested is no mean feat.

Superstars are aware what it is they need to achieve from the storyline. At times, the matches go beyond the ring and involve the audiences also. Our challenge is to not get complacent and constantly try to engage the viewers with something new and interesting.

We do more than 20 shows over 10-11 days on an average, and these work with extreme logistics. To move 40-50 talents and production crew and trucks in time for the next event involves precise planning and clockwork. One delayed fight and there will be 10,000 people waiting in the arena. We can’t let them down.

How many cameras cover each match?

Our pay-per-views have wider camera angles in a five- to seven-camera set-up. We have been producing in HD and even tried 4K, but the distribution of 4K is limited. We also use these cameras to capture behind-the-scenes footage from the matches.