ESPN’s first foray into live WWE programming on its linear networks produced some solid returns.
WrestleMania 42 coverage on ESPN and ESPN2 last weekend averaged 1.72 million viewers across simulcast windows on Saturday and Sunday evening, per Ryan Glasspiegel of Front Office Sports. Those figures do not include viewers watching on ESPN Unlimited, the only platform where the full show was made available.
ESPN2 averaged 1.62 million viewers for its opening-hour coverage of WrestleMania on Saturday, while the first hour of Night 2 averaged 1.82 million viewers on ESPN. Both simulcasts included a one-hour pre-show, which averaged 676,000 viewers for ESPN2 on Night 1 and 750,000 viewers on Night 2 for ESPN.
For reference, WWE Smackdown on USA Network has averaged about 1.33 million viewers per episode over the past 10 weeks, per Paul Fontaine of Wrestling Observer. So as far as WWE’s linear television audiences go, the WrestleMania simulcast was a bit better than a run-of-the-mill Friday episode of Smackdown.
Considering these numbers do not include viewers on ESPN Unlimited, presumably the platform most ardent WWE fans would be using during this window, it’s difficult to put these audience figures into perspective. The true measure of success for ESPN will be the number of ESPN Unlimited subscriptions that WrestleMania drove over the weekend.
ESPN is paying a reported $325 million per year for WWE’s Premium Live Events. In terms of programming that is exclusive to ESPN Unlimited, the WWE events are undeniably the biggest. Most streaming-only ESPN programming can still be accessed through the more affordable Select tier, which replaced ESPN+. The majority of pay TV subscribers also receive access to ESPN Unlimited at no additional cost, with the exception of YouTube TV users, who are still waiting for access.
Still, ESPN launched ESPN Unlimited with the idea of attracting users that have never and will never purchase a pay TV subscription. Premium content like WrestleMania is important to help drive those subscribers.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.