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Text: Leading today's discussion are Vince McMahon, WWE's Chairman and CEO; Nick Khan, WWE's President and Chief Revenue Officer; Stephanie McMahon, WWE's Chief Brand Officer; and Kristina Salen, WWE's Chief Financial Officer.
Their remarks will be followed by a Q&A session.
Actual results may differ materially, and undue reliance should not be placed on them.
Additionally, the matters we will be discussing today may include non-GAAP financial measures.
You should note that all comparisons are versus the year ago quarter, unless otherwise described.
As you can see, our solid financial results are pretty strong as a result of the global demand of all things WWE, including a return to live event touring, which is unlike any other media company.
This is where the WWE brand really comes alive in so many different respects.
And as a result of the strong indication, we're going to -- we're going to raise our guidance, our 2021 guidance.
And that's with the lack of one event in Riyadh.
Normally we have 2.
Because of the COVID situation, we have one at end the year.
But nonetheless, notwithstanding, we're raising our guidance, which I think is pretty good.
We saw a lot of positive trends, which Stephanie will get to in a minute.
And -- but even with the strong recovery, it's opened or eyes to many more ways that we can take advantage of our IP and the evolution of sports entertainment.
It's nice to speak with you all again.
This quarter, I'd like to first offer perspective on our Media segment, hitting on both near-term opportunities as well as our long-term position in a marketplace that continues to put a premium on live rights.
After an update on media, I will run through a number of deals we closed over the past quarter that have created new revenue streams for WWE and increased the value of existing ones.
Looking first at near-term media rights opportunities.
We have two key negotiations in our sites that will drive value for our company.
The first is our RIA rights for Raw on Hulu, which expire in the back half of 2022.
The second is the licensing of our direct-to-consumer service, WWE Network, in international markets, which we have discussed previously.
A competitive landscape has already formed around both initiatives.
In terms of the Raw RIA rights, we know from the data that there is a substantial and recurring audience who watch the program via delayed viewing week-to-week on Hulu.
When we closed the Hulu deal in 2018, the media landscape was quite different, as we all know.
NBCU was an active owner of Hulu, and Peacock was just a nascent dream.
We now all know that in a 2021 world, NBCU is a passive Hulu owner and barring exigent circumstances, NBCU's stake will be bought out by Disney at Hulu's 2024 valuation.
Let's keep in mind what we all know.
In addition to Disney's initial Hulu ownership percentage, Disney picked up Fox's ownership stake in Hulu with Disney's acquisition of a large majority of FOX two-plus years ago.
We also recently saw executive shifts from Hulu to Peacock, and we believe that in addition to all other platforms looking for event programming that resonates that the battle for Raw's RIA rights will be intense and fun.
Regarding WWE Network, we continue to execute on a strategy to optimize our value across international markets.
We have a model that buyers are responding to.
As so many U.S.-based companies look to go international overnight, it sets up a competitive global landscape that none of us have seen over the course of our careers.
We continue to believe that will garner great results.
Outside of those media deals tied to our live rights, we are continuing to expand our original programming slate.
This quarter, NBCU announced Miz and Mrs would be returning for a third season.
Earlier in October, we debuted Escape the Undertaker on Netflix, an innovative interactive show featuring WWE Superstars.
six months ago, we merged our content units into one place, WWE Media.
We recently completed a children's animation scripted project with a streamer and will soon announce a slew of scripted and unscripted programming that demonstrates the weight of our content pipeline.
This is an area that will continue to be a priority for us.
We recognize these productions not only generate meaningful economic returns for our company, but that they also expand WWE's brand and help us establish relationships with myriad media companies while making sure that our programming remains young and diverse.
All of this is directly related to our next U.S. rights negotiations.
We are as bullish now on those rights as we were when we went into the prior negotiations, which saw an increase in the U.S. from 130 million a year AAV to 470 million a year AAV for Raw and SmackDown.
We have previously discussed numerous deals that demonstrate the continued rise in the value of live.
These included recently negotiated media rights for the NFL, NHL, Major League Baseball, the SEC, La Liga and Wimbledon.
Media rights that are coming up for renewal are also drawing interest from new buyers, which is expected to further the trend of meaningful increases for those rights.
As an example, we know the English Premier League is looking to get $300 million a year annually versus U.S. rights, doubling the $150 million a year average annual value currently paid by NBCU.
That bidding process is expected to be highly competitive, due in large part to the combination of traditional buyers and new buyers like Amazon, ESPN Plus and Peacock.
They're all looking for live with dedicated fans to quickly build up their subscriber bases.
Yesterday, Fox announced on its earnings call that they closed a multiyear deal with UEFA for its next two European Championships in 2024 and 2028 and for over 1,500 soccer matches, a rights package in excess of which Disney currently pays for its portion of it.
We have all read the rumors of Fox partnering with Fubo, a virtual MVPD on this rights deal.
With this sort of tonnage, that partnership made complete sense to us, creative and smart.
Live continues to dominate linear while helping to build other platforms, and we are seeing scripted content continue to migrate to streamers.
Both Apple TV and Amazon have been considered front runners for the NFL Sunday Ticket package.
Ted Sarandos has publicly expressed that Netflix would rather buy than run sports properties.
He seemed to be referring to Formula One coming off of the success of their Drive to Survive program.
Speaking of Netflix, we have seen early cuts of our upcoming Vince McMahon multipart Netflix documentary, which is executive produced by WWE and Bill Simmons, who did the acclaimed Andre the Giant documentary with us.
The Vince cuts are out of this world, amazing.
Wait until you see it.
As it relates to Bill Simmons, who some have referred to as the godfather of podcasts or the pod father, this past quarter, we closed the deal with Spotify and The Ringer for Spotify to become the exclusive audio network of WWE.
The partnership jump starts us in this all-important space while allowing us to leverage the resources and reach of Spotify and its 165 million subscribers.
That partnership was announced this past August at SummerSlam when The Ringer hosted live shows for our fans in Las Vegas.
We're confident that with Spotify's expertise alongside our library of intellectual property and our talent that we will deliver an audio product that excites existing fans while also introducing WWE content to the millions of Spotify listeners.
I would also like to discuss some new business with you.
As we focus on extracting more value from our IP wheel, further establishing new businesses that expand WWE's brand and drives revenue is a key for all of us.
We've had an active quarter creating new revenue streams and increasing the value of existing lines of business.
One area we've spent the last year examining is our strategic approach to pay-per-views.
We've looked into all parts of that business that are making adjustments that we believe will enhance our results by making each pay-per-view a special event not only in its content, but in all things surrounding each event.
As promised last quarter, we recently announced our pay-per-view calendar for 2022, the dates, cities, venues.
For the first time in our history, we're hosting at least four pay-per-view nights in stadiums in the United States.
First, Royal Rumble on January 29 at the Dome at America's Center in St. Louis, a Saturday night, where there is no real competitive programming on the sports calendar.
Typically, we have done Royal Rumble a week later during Pro Bowl weekend.
However, this year, we wanted to support our NBCU partners and not go up against the Winter Olympics.
Thus far, ticket sales are off the charts, tracking as well as this year's SummerSlam, where we ended up with a gate four times the gate of SummerSlam 2019, a clear sign of the value of bringing our tentpole events to major venues on the right night.
Next, in terms of stadium events, a 2-night WrestleMania at AT&T Stadium in Dallas, Saturday, April two and Sunday, April 3.
In 2016 at AT&T Stadium, we had over 100,000 fans in attendance for WrestleMania.
Let's see what two nights brings for our Super Bowl.
Tickets go on sale next week.
Our stadium event after that, another on of our big five pay-per-views, Money in the Bank, the weekend going into July 4, will be back at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
Over 400,000 people are expected to travel to Las Vegas that weekend to celebrate the Fourth.
We expect to see many of them at Money in the Bank.
About a month later, SummerSlam at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, again on a Saturday, July 30.
If you've been to Nashville in the summer on a weekend, it's booming and growing, and we are growing SummerSlam with it.
What we found from this past SummerSlam in Las Vegas, of the 50,000 plus who attended, not one ticket was purchased from Tennessee, not 1.
So many similarities between those two cities on the weekends, not much crossover between those two cities on the weekends and a robust ticket buying market in each for us to tap into and grow with.
One other item to highlight relating to our pay-per-view events.
For the first time, we're holding an event on the night of New year's Day from State Farm Arena in Atlanta.
As we discussed previously, this upcoming New year's Eve is a Friday.
Both college football playoff games are on that Friday.
Usually the NFL will go to a Saturday and Sunday schedule once the college football regular season is over.
That is no longer happening on Saturdays late in the season with the NFL's new 18-week regular season, and over 350,000 people are expected in Atlanta for that New year's weekend.
With the removal of NFL competition and the city packed with visitors, we thought it might be smart to have an event there the next night, again, Saturday, January 1.
We expect to benefit from all of those weakened guests looking for entertainment the night after New year 's eve.
You may recall seeing Atlanta Hawks NBA All-Star Trae Young interfere in one of our matches at Madison Square Garden in September, all part of our Atlanta strategy.
Look for more integration like that across our product.
Another area where we've strategically pivoted in an effort to further grow our business is with a new trading card partner, Panini.
As all of you know, the trading card market is booming right now with a handful of companies competing for a select number of deals with the top sports properties.
We received multiple bids from those companies.
Panini, with their expertise, doggedness and domestic and international knowledge, proved out to be the best partner for us in this space.
The deal is considered -- is a considerable financial step up from our previous trading card deal.
We also recently announced a new multiyear agreement with Fox to launch an NFT marketplace for licensed digital WWE tokens and collectibles.
Fox is obviously our existing partner in the U.S. for SmackDown.
And coming out of the pandemic, we've been able to spend considerable in-person time with Fox's senior executive team to think of additional ways to work together.
As Lachlan Murdoch, Fox's Executive Chairman and CEO, said on their earnings call yesterday relating to Fox and WWE together in the NFT space, this type of deal will drive new business and the creative and entrepreneurial spirit in all of it.
This new collaboration will create authentic NFTs that showcases WWE's catalog of digital assets, including iconic moments, legendary superstars and premier events such as WrestleMania and SummerSlam.
With our wholly owned intellectual property, we have a competitive advantage in our ability to leverage the immense popularity of NFTs as well as the activities surrounding trading cards and other collectibles.
It's been a busy quarter with a sustained focus on strengthening our existing businesses and establishing new revenue streams.
She will cover a number of items, including our significant growth in sponsorship over the past year.
And unfortunately, everyone, I have to start with some bad news.
WWE Superstar The Miz was eliminated from Dancing With the Stars this week.
He did make it to the top 10, and his weekly appearance was seen by nearly six million viewers on ABC, raising awareness for both Miz and WWE.
As Nick mentioned, we are changing from an arena-based touring model to a stadium-based touring model, allowing us to better align all lines of business around our key tentpole events.
For example, SummerSlam was held at Allegiant Stadium, the first time SummerSlam has ever been held in an NFL stadium, attracting a record 51,000 fans and drawing a record gate.
As Nick mentioned, more than 4 times greater than the last SummerSlam held with fans in 2019.
Merchandise was up 155% year-over-year and more people watched SummerSlam across Peacock and WWE networks than any other SummerSlam in WWE history, with a viewership increase of 55% from 2020.
SummerSlam also marked the finish of The Summer of Cena, a strategic move to use one of our biggest superstars to help kick off our return to live events that began on July 16.
John Cena became our top-selling talent for merchandise, especially with youth audiences, and he increased ratings for audiences two to 17 and 18 to 49 by 20% and 10% during his appearances on Raw and SmackDown.
An Instagram video featuring Cena became WWE's most watched native Instagram video with 4.3 million views.
And while The Summer of Cena came to an end at SummerSlam, we began new storylines by surprising the audience with the return of The Man, Becky Lynch, and the Beast Incarnate, Brock Lesner.
Brock's return broke Cena's Instagram record at 4.5 million.
Sales and sponsorship revenues for SummerSlam were up 18% year-over-year and 25% over 2019, featuring our first-ever official water with Blue Triton's Pure Life and our first-ever official beer with Constellation's Victoria beer brand.
We also had an array of sponsors across betting, gaming, wireless, energy and credit card categories with DraftKings, 2K, Cricket Wireless, Cellucor C4 and Credit One.
Just as WWE's overall business is nearly 80% contractual, we have shifted our sales and sponsorship strategy from transactional to contractual, pivoting to multiyear seven-figure deals.
In 2021, the number of these deals has increased 60%.
Additionally, our client spend has increased 44% year-over-year with over 50% returning partners.
In the quarter, gross sponsorship sales are up over 20%, excluding a 2020 YouTube bonus payment and partnership allocation.
To help give perspective, there are four key areas of growth across sales and sponsorship: content integrations, superstar brands, digital, social and international.
In terms of content integration, would you ever see a Pure Life truck drive into Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City and have Patrick Mahomes spray down fans with a Pure Life branded Super Soaker as part of a touchdown celebration?
Or have zombies replace the offensive line for one down?
My guess is no.
But you can in WWE and because we have all the exciting action of a live game but are scripted like a great movie, we can write those integrations in ways that are fun and memorable for the audience and our partners.
Or we can leverage our creative writing and media teams to create customized content across digital and social media that is relevant to that platform, like we did with P&G's Old Spice when we introduced a new WWE Superstar with the same name as their new scent, the Night Panther.
We produced 16 pieces of original content that delivered over 0.5 billion impressions and 40 million views with 96% of our audience saying they would take action toward Old Spice.
In terms of Superstars, the best comparison I can think of is Disney's Marvel Superheroes.
Each Superhero is their own individual franchise and WWE has just begun to unlock some of our incredible IP, which dates back generations with each Superstar being their own brand with their own story.
Our biography series with A&E is one example.
Xavier Woods' UpUpDownDown YouTube gaming channel is another.
Becky Lynch on the cover of Golden Crisp or The Miz with his own reality show are just a few examples.
And international sales are just getting up to bat as we focus on creating more localized content.
Additionally, engagement metrics continue to be strong for WWE, with a slight increase in television ratings for both Raw and SmackDown despite tough competition from the return of live sports.
Digital consumption increased to a quarterly record of 410 million hours, and video views increased 38% to 12.8 billion as compared to a prior year period that had benefited from COVID-19-related viewing trends.
And with our renewed emphasis on producing more content for emerging platforms and younger audiences, our video views on Snapchat and TikTok are up 22% and 29%, respectively, year-over-year.
Speaking of TikTok, while it is a tight race, we are the number one sports brand on TikTok over the NBA with 14.5 million followers.
With the continuing focus on innovation and interactivity, WWE was recently announced as one of three launch partners with Snapchat's new augmented reality division, Arcadia, in which we will be creating fun and unexpected AR experiences for fans at upcoming events.
And I would be remiss if I didn't recognize how excited we are for the launch of our console game 2K 22 in March 2022.
On yesterday's earnings call, Take-Two President Karl Slatoff said it will be the biggest WWE 2K launch to date.
We are pleased with our overall performance in the quarter, highlighting our ability to deliver on strategic initiatives, captivate a passionate audience and drive value for our business partners and shareholders.
Today, I will discuss WWE's financial performance.
As a reminder, all comparisons are versus the year ago quarter, unless I say otherwise.
In the third quarter, WWE generated solid financial results as we focused on optimizing our return to live event touring, driving fan engagement and increasing efficiency in our content production.
Total WWE revenue was $255.8 million, an increase of 15%, driven by higher ticket and vending merchandise sales associated with our return to live event touring, including SummerSlam.
Adjusted OIBDA declined 8% to $77.9 million as the growth in revenue was more than offset by higher television and event-related production expenses.
Looking at the WWE Media segment.
Adjusted OIBDA was $85.6 million, a decline of 16%, primarily due to the increase in production expenses, which I just described.
That increase reflected in part the lower cost of producing televised content from our training facility in the prior year quarter.
Media segment revenue increased slightly as the contractual escalation of WWE's core content rights fees from the distribution of Raw and SmackDown were partially offset by a decrease in network revenue.
The latter was driven by the timing of license fees associated with the delivery of WWE Network content to Peacock as compared to the recognition of subscription revenue in the prior year quarter.
In mid-July, we transitioned our television and pay-per-view production from the Yuengling Center in Tampa Bay to the arenas and stadiums that are part of our touring model.
Recall that in the third quarter of 2020, we were producing a barebones production out of our performance center in Orlando for much of the quarter until we established our WWE ThunderDome experience in late August 2020.
These changes in venue were the primary determinant of the year-over-year increase in production expense.
Live Events adjusted OIBDA was $9.3 million, an increase of more than 3 times or $13.5 million due to a 39 times increase in revenue with the return to live event touring, including the staging of SummerSlam.
Recall that in the year ago quarter, we staged no live events or ticketed fare.
As we said, we are thrilled by the return to live event touring.
During the third quarter, average attendance for our 38 events in North America was significantly above 2019, reflecting heightened consumer demand for our live events.
And for the fourth quarter, we continue to anticipate ticket demand and profit per event that is at least on par with 2019.
In our Consumer Products business, we've continued to develop new partnerships and products as we align with evolving consumer preferences, including the tremendous interest in NFTs, trading cards and memorabilia.
Earlier, Nick described our newly formed partnership with FOX in the NFT space and Panini.
Importantly, he also extended our global master toy licensing agreement with Mattel, a partner whose popular WWE action figures and other toy products comprise a meaningful share of our licensing revenue.
During the third quarter, WWE generated approximately $45 million in free cash flow, declining $66 million primarily due to the timing of collections associated with our large-scale international events in the prior year quarter and to a lesser extent, an increase in capital expenditures.
Notably, during the third quarter, WWE returned $31 million of capital to shareholders, including approximately $22 million in share repurchases and $9 million in dividends paid.
To date, we've repurchased approximately $200 million of stock, representing approximately 40% of the authorization under our $500 million repurchase program.
As of September 30, 2021, WWE held approximately $449 million in cash and short-term investments.
Debt totaled $221 million, including $200 million associated with WWE's convertible notes.
The company has no amounts outstanding under its revolving line of credit and estimates related debt capacity of approximately $200 million.
And finally, a word on WWE's business outlook.
In January, WWE issued adjusted OIBDA guidance of $270 million to $305 million for the full year 2021.
During this third quarter, key performance metrics demonstrated positive trends, and we continue to realize heightened demand for live events and better-than-expected television production efficiencies.
Based on outperformance to date and revised expectations for the full year, we are raising our guidance.
Adjusted OIBDA is now expected to be within a range of $305 million to $315 million with the staging of one large-scale international event.
The revised full year guidance implies fourth quarter adjusted OIBDA of $75 million to $85 million as compared to $51.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2020.
The projected year-over-year growth reflects the impact of staging one large-scale international events, which we were unable to stage in the fourth quarter of last year, contractual increases in media rights and higher revenue and profits from the return to live event touring.
These factors are partially offset by an expected increase in operating expenses.
Turning to WWE's capital expenditures.
Through the first nine months of 2021, WWE has incurred about $24 million in capital expenditures, primarily to support our technology infrastructure and restart the construction of our new headquarters.
While we continue to anticipate increased spending in the fourth quarter to support these initiatives, we also anticipate lower capital expenditures during the remainder of the year than previously estimated.
For the full year 2021, total capital expenditures are expected to be within a range of $60 million to $75 million, lower than the previous guidance of $85 million to $105 million.
The revised range does incorporate some potential supply chain disruption and associated potential timing-related changes in spending.
In the third quarter, WWE generated better-than-expected revenue and adjusted OIBDA results.
The robust demand for our events and increased consumption programming across platforms highlights the strength of our brand and reinforces our belief that continued innovation can enhance the value of our content and our products.

user
q3 revenue rose 15 percent to $255.8 million.
raises full year 2021 guidance.
sees fy adjusted oibda within $305 million to $315 million with staging of only one large-scale international event.
for full year 2021, total capital expenditures are expected to be within a range of $60 million to $75 million.

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