Ubisoft Interested In Purchasing THQ Assets
Ubisoft is said to be looking at taking over THQ’s assets and the initial belief is that they are exploring getting it for a “bargain basement price”. The company has interest in continuing with the WWE franchise. The biggest obstacle is the unpaid royalties to WWE in what is being touted as a breach of contract with THQ.
More Details On TNA Losing TV Overseas
Partial Source: The Wrestling Observer Newsletter
To follow up on our earlier report from this month about TNA losing television distribution in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, more details are now known.
According to sources, TNA provided all programming to Sky in Germany for free with the hope it would expose the product in those European markets that WWE has performed well in. TNA would work with Sky on PPV events to make money on the deal and the hope was that it would lead to strong attendance at events held in the region. However, TNA PPV events only drew a few hundred buys and attempts to run live events in those markets were huge disappointments.
TNA made the call to let the contract expire and were hoping to shop the programming to another provider in the countries. Sky was described as not being happy with the deal and looked at TNA as a low-rated television show with no upside.
WWE Training Staff
With WWE recently hiring Billy Gunn as a new trainer for developmental, the coaching staff in Tampa now includes Gunn, Steve Keirn, Bill DeMott, Dusty Rhodes, Ricky Steamboat, Joey Mercury, Norman Smiley and Sara Del Rey.
TNA Taping Show To Replace February PPV
TNA will be taping a show of some kind in order to fill the spot vacated by their decision to drop the February Against All Odds pay-per-view. The program will be taped on January 12th, the day before the TNA Genesis pay-per-view. There is no word on where they will tape. It should be noted that as of this writing, Universal Studios in Orlando does not list any kind of TNA taping for that date. Obviously, that can easily change.
The plan is to use a lot of X-Division stars, with the show intended to fill the void left by the slot for their international PPV partners. Included in the current plans are an Ultimate X match, an X Division Escape match and a traditional TNA gauntlet match.
Tribute To Troops Rating
WWE’s “Tribute to the Troops” special on NBC averaged 1.3 million viewers on Saturday, December 22. It continued a very sharp decline for the annual one-hour special, down nearly one million viewers from 2.1 million viewers last year on Saturday, Dec. 17.
In 2010, the special averaged 2.3 million viewers. In 2009, the special averaged 2.4 million viewers.
WWE also took a big hit in the adult 18-49 demographic. The show scored a 0.3 rating in 18-49, which was cut in-half from a 0.6 rating among a18-49 last year.
Adult 18-49 demographic
2009 – 0.8 rating
2010 – 0.7 rating
2011 – 0.6 rating
2012 – 0.3 rating
The Troops special ranked #4 on the major networks during the 9:00 p.m. EST timeslot, falling behind a re-run of “Kitchen Nightmares” on Fox.
On NBC, Troops was beat by a re-run of “Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol,” which drew 2.0 million viewers at 8:00 p.m., and a Saturday Night Live re-run, which drew 2.7 million viewers at 10:00 p.m. Overall, Troops was the least-watched prime-time network show on Saturday night.
More Later!
