World Wrestling Entertainment this morning has announced its Q1 results, details of which can be found in the company-issued press release here.
In the press release, the company announced the following general financial numbers for its first fiscal quarter, which ended July 28, 2006:
Revenues totaled $93.3 million as compared to $93.8 million in the prior year quarter and operating income was $15.6 million as compared to $15.8 million in the prior year quarter. The Company reported net income of $11.3 million, or $0.16 per share, as compared to $11.2 million, or $0.16 per share, in the prior year quarter.
The release quotes WWE CEO Linda McMahon, who plays up the ECW relaunch as successful, with SCI FI Channel agreeing to keep the show on the air through December 2007 (the TV network also issued a press release today stating this). She also talks about the company’s 1.1 million DVDs sold which represents “our best quarter ever” in the home video business. Wrestlemania 22 is the company’s best-selling DVD title to date.
Also of note, compared with last year, revenues this year included one less PPV and no domestic cable advertising revenue from RAW ($8 million last year). International PPV buys comprised approximately 40% of total buys in the quarter vs. 28% in the same quarter last year, while North American average attendance increased to 5300 in the quarter compared with 4600 last year.
While WWE no longer makes money from US cable advertising, WWE.com and WWE Shop revenues were up this quarter compared with the same quarter last year. WWE Films did not record revenues in this quarter for See No Evil. The full press release, including financial details, can be found here.
