World Wrestling Entertainment Q2 2008 Earnings Call Transcript

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2008-08-05 11:24:19.0

Tags: World Wrestling Entertainment Inc.

Question-and-Answer Session

Operator

(Operator Instructions) We’ll take our first question from Richard Ingrassia with Roth Capital.

Richard Ingrassia - Roth Capital

Thanks. Good morning, everybody. Linda, this is the third quarter in a row now you’ve moved opposite the weakness in overall U.S. consumer product spending, and in the Q2 numbers, I really only see a slight decline in per capita event merchandise that conflicts there. Are you seeing any broader signs that indicate a change in your counter-cyclical strength?

Linda E. McMahon

Actually, I’m going to defer to Mike on that one.

Michael E. Sileck

Richard, what we are seeing, if I think I understand your question is we are kind of going against the trend and the market for our services is increasing in a time of economic weakness. That trend is one that has differentiated our brand over the years and as we’ve said in past recessionary times, this brand has held up very strong. We are more sensitive to the popularity of our super stars and the popularity of our ongoing storylines. That’s more important over the long-term than the economic sort of ups and downs.

That said, we are very -- we are keeping a very close eye on that trend and I will say one thing we are starting to see is some weakness in the United Kingdom. You know, we talk a lot about what’s going on here in the United States. We are starting to see some slow-down in the United Kingdom, not anything of any severity but we are being aware of that. Hopefully that answers your question.

Richard Ingrassia - Roth Capital

It does, thanks, and I’ll stay with you, if that’s okay, for two more questions and then one for George; can you say a little more about the website launches and redesign? Not so much the physical changes, if you will, but how those changes might give you more variety in revenue units -- for example, more sponsorships and beyond display advertising alone?

Michael E. Sileck

Absolutely. Really two things going on simultaneously -- one is as we’ve noted, we’ve launched what we are terming WWE Fan Nation, which is really a community site to attract interest from all things wrestling. You know, as we had stated before, we noted that fans were going elsewhere to get rumors and other news related to the world of wrestling. We want to capture all of that interest and all those eyeballs, and there will be a requisite increase in traffic as a result of it, which will allow more ad impressions to be had.

 

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