LONDON: MIPCOM 2003 will see hot wrestling action courtesy World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). The international television market scheduled to take place from 10-14 October in Cannes, France will see Vince McMahon's organisation offer buyers nine hours of fresh programming every week for a total of more than 450 new hours each year.
WWE programming is currently seen in over 125 countries. In India it airs on Ten Sports.
Acknowledging that pay-per-view sales are the fastest growing sector for the company, WWE has just finalised three new pay-per-view deals with Main Event in Australia, Sky TV in New Zealand and Showtime in the Middle East.
All three pay-per-view deals are for the 12 WWE yearly pay-per-views, including WrestleMania XX which the company has already started promoting on-air through snippets that offer a look back at previous editions of the event. The event will be broadcast live on pay-per-view from Madison Square Garden in New York City on 14 March 2004. Then there is WWE SummerSlam, WWE Royal Rumble and WWE Survivor Series. At MIPCOM, WWE will offer Raw and Smackdown content. On display are wrestling superstars like Bill Goldberg, Brock Lesnar, Triple H.
It will also offer its other specials such as WWE Afterburn, WWE Heat. WWE claims to be the number one pay-per-view provider in the world. The company's events consistently rank among pay-per-view programmes achieving the highest number of buys, with approximately 7.1 million US buys recorded last year. WWE distributes its pay-per-view events to more than 125 countries. Last year its pay-per-view programmes generated revenues of approximately $112.0 million.