The Rapidly Growing iPPV Market

‘Overexposure’ is something of a buzzword in pro wrestling right now. WWE and top competitor UFC have been subject to some criticism with regards to huge quantities of supply which is greatly outweighing demand. There is a method to their madness, with UFC producing more hours to satisfy their historic FOX deal, while WWE continues to rake in the cash for every extra hour of TV they produce. Despite the upsides though, there’s no doubting that too much wrestling or MMA can be tiring for all but the most hardcore fans, and some are concerned that this is a case of short term gain, without taking long term into consideration. With that in mind, I found myself wondering recently if the ever-expanding internet pay-per-view market is also growing too big for its own good, and if the initial hype is now being replaced with disinterested groans from fans.

Much has been made of the iPPV movement since it really came to the fore a number of years ago thanks to Ring of Honor and GoFightLive.tv. While not the innovators of the medium, ROH had some early successes with internet shows, which not only filled a void left by ‘traditional’ pay-per-view, but seemingly improved upon them in several ways. The shows could now stream live across the world, eliminating spoilers from the equation and giving bigger events more of a ‘must-see’ feel, as well as potentially bringing the show into more homes than the limited offering of North American cable companies. Furthermore, reports suggest that these shows are significantly more cost effective than normal PPV, thanks to cutting out the huge cable companies who took a sizable cut of the profits. Sure, ROH had some bumps in the road, most notably several disastrous technical hiccups this year, but it seemed as though iPPV had a bright future, and could offer independent wrestling companies a new, cost-effective stage to showcase their product.

With decent numbers for ROH shows on GoFightLive, suddenly GFL.tv wasn’t the only carrier in town, as the iPPV medium became the new hot topic in indie wrestling.

ROH has since outgrown GFL, after a series of incidents on Wrestlemania weekend caused the now Sinclair-owned group to take on the task of hosting their own iPPVs. So far, the results are good.

In just a few years, iPPV has changed from a relatively new concept to a now almost widely accepted norm in the independent wrestling world. Not only does GFL play host to Chikara and several other promotions, but competitor sites have also started up and each are boasting a unique roster of promotions large and small, most of whom would never have expected to make it on PPV in its traditional format.

Before I get to the pressing issue of overexposure, as alluded to earlier, I feel obligated to say that I am genuinely pleased that this medium has become so popular. Like all of you reading this, I am first and foremost a fan of independent wrestling. Any developments that allow talented performers and motivated promoters to get their shows seen by wider audiences is good news to me.  But I feel like it would be foolish to simply bury your head in the sand, and act like everyone hopping on the bandwagon doesn’t have its potential issues.

When just looking at ROH, in the very difficult position of number three promotion, you can’t ignore the elephant in the room that wrestling fans have X amount of dollars they are willing to spend. With WWE, and even TNA to an extent, having their marketing machines behind them, it’s difficult for ROH to try and squeeze a few more dollars out of wrestling fans, especially in an era when enthusiasm for the product is so low.

But now, countless other promotions are fighting for your attention, no longer content with trying to make money from attendance and DVD sales, or just targeting their own unique niche. It seems that iPPV’s allure is just too much for most promoters to ignore, as more and more shows crop up on the various hosting sites. With many of these shows being promoted as the respective promotions’ biggest event(s) of the year, take PRIME’s recent offering for example, and a hard online push for buys, I get the impression that eventually wrestling fans’ interest and disposable income will be spread too thin, and eventually the supposed positives of iPPV will be negated. While you can’t knock people for wanting to broaden their fanbase and make more money, I feel like all these promotions jumping on iPPV will take from its special nature, and it will eventually become just another tired medium through which they distribute. While much has been made of how cost-effective most iPPV set ups are, I wonder just how big the gains really are, when everyone is doing it and the market for these shows becomes overcrowded.

Perhaps I’m over thinking it, and maybe iPPV is the next logical step for the indies. The days of DVDs are seemingly numbered, and digital distribution is the way forward, but whether or not iPPV itself is the future is questionable. Personally, I’d like to see more promotions invest in video on demand services for their regular DVD releases, as opposed to putting all their eggs in the iPPV basket. Switching to VOD for monthly shows, instead of heavily investing in two or three supershows on iPPV seems to be a more logical progression for smaller companies.

I’m interested to know what everyone thinks on this, because I know iPPV has a lot of supporters these days. Please do let me know, either by leaving a comment, or tweeting me; @BarryLadTweets. Thanks for reading!