"They could be underdelivering" - Eric Bischoff estimates the cost of producing AEW Dynamite
WWE Hall of Famer Eric Bischoff has speculated on the cost of production for every episode of AEW Dynamite.
Unlike WWE, All Elite Wrestling is not a publicly traded company. This means that there is no obligation for the company to release any financial numbers to the public. Hence, the revenue and costs involved in the company's functioning are unknown.
During an AdFreeShows.com exclusive episode of Strictly Business, Eric Bischoff chimed in on what he believes the production cost of each episode of Dynamite could be:
“My guess is the cost of producing that show when they’re having to travel and doing it live, I would be shocked if they were able to produce that show for less than $450,000 an episode,” Bischoff said. “That doesn’t include talent, I’m talking about producing the show. There’s half that $865,000 a week, now you’ve got to throw talent on top of that, now you’ve got to throw travel on top of that, now you’ve got to throw a lot of things on top of that. So it’s hard to say whether AEW is profitable or not," said Bischoff.
Dave Meltzer says that the AEW Revolution PPV buys are in the 165,000-170,000 range.
This makes AEW Revolution 2022 the 2nd biggest PPV in company history. https://t.co/N4rsmBZz6b
The former RAW General Manager went on to speculate on Dynamite's performance in regards to their contract with WarnerMedia:
"I don’t know, in terms of how does TBS look at Dynamite? That all depends on how well they’re doing with their advertising. Are they getting premium ad dollars or are they getting mid-tier ad dollars? Are they getting opportunistic buys? So since none of us know that, AEW could be overdelivering to TBS on those expectations or they could be underdelivering." (H/T: WrestlingInc)
Eric Bischoff commented on AEW Dynamite's ratings
Thanks to our great fans, great ratings + a great card of matches set for Wednesday Night Dynamite, @TBSNetwork granted us an overrun for #AEWDynamite tomorrow! It may just be a few minutes, but whatever happens there’s a chance we’ll run past 10pm ET/9pm CT tomorrow on Dynamite!
Eric Bischoff knows a thing or two about television ratings. As Senior Vice President of WCW, he oversaw its meteoric ascent in the late 1990s and helped usher in one of pro wrestling's biggest boom periods in the form of the now-legendary Monday Night Wars.
Though the landscape has changed since those days, both WWE and AEW are still formidable in their respective time slots on cable. On the aforementioned episode of Strictly Business, Bischoff commented on the Wednesday night show's ratings, which have been hovering around the one million viewer mark:
“They’re steady, holding a course at about a million viewers a week, that’s pretty cool and usually ends up in the top five on Wednesdays. Yay team, hey, we are doing great on Wednesday night prime time on cable television, but what does it really mean in terms of dollars? That depends on who’s advertising on the show." (H/T: WrestlingInc)
Dynamite scored 977,000 viewers this week while the previous Rampage recorded 600,000 viewers. With the WarnerMedia and Discovery merger, it will be interesting to see how these numbers impact the terms of a potential new deal when AEW's current TV contract expires in 2023.