"Raw," one of cable's top-rated programs, got its start with a seven-year run on USA before moving to Spike TV in 2000. The series returned to USA two years ago, helping boost the channel to its top standing among basic cable networks in primetime. Since its return, "Raw" has averaged 5.1 million total viewers, including 2.6 million in the adults 18-49 demographic and 2.3 million in adults 25-54, according to Nielsen Media Research.
5 million viewers is a 4.4 on the Nielsen ratings. The last time RAW got a rating that high was February 2006. RAW does not get 5 million viewers every week, regardless of what USA says.
But at this point in the game it's not a big deal. If TNA was getting 3.0-4.0 ratings and receiving that amount, it would be an issue. Right now, it's not. And no one is expecting any thing huge from TNA at this point in terms of numbers in any form.
It
is a big deal. TNA is losing money, and that's not going to change until TNA fans start buying the PPVs again.
The number arguments are just something you anti-TNA people use in your arguments to convince yourself that TNA hasn't improved as a product even though numbers has little to do with quality.
Well if the 975,000 people who watch TNA every week but DON'T order the PPV aren't doing so because of the quality, why are they refusing to pay the $30?
TNA made a huge jump with Angle/Joe at Genesis 06, due to this being a very high feud with fans for a long time but since then TNA went back to their regular numbers and hasn't lost or gained any buyrates since. They're remaining consistent with numbers and that's all that matters.
TNA has not remained consistent with buyrates. Not at all.
January: 34,000 buys for Final Resolution
February: 23,000 buys for Against All Odds
March: 36,000 buys for Destination X
April: 35,000 buys for Lockdown
May: 21,000 buys for Sacrifice
June: 22,000 buys for Slammiversary
July: 15,000 buys for Victory Road
August: 26,000 buys for Hard Justice
September: 17,000 buys for No Surrender
October: 36,000 buys for Bound For Glory
November: 27,000 buys for Genesis
You claim they're not interested just because they're not willing to shell out 30.00 for whatever reason but yet I'm pointing out to you that they're interested enough to come back week after week to maintain consistent ratings.
They come back every week because it's FREE! The low buyrates show that they don't think highly enough of the product to pay to see it. If you stand in the street handing out chocolate bars free of charge, people are going to keep coming back. They might not even like them, but they'll come back because it's free. Start charging people for them, and then you find out how many of them actually like the product.
TNA has less viewership, they'll pull in less numbers. That's quite logical. WWE does huge numbers and pulls in horrible numbers. What's there problem?
You're really not paying attention here. It doesn't matter how big TNA's viewership is, we're talking about the relationship between TNA viewership and PPV buyrates. The fact is, only 2% of TNA's viewers order the PPV. That's the figure that matters, and it's not a good figure. Forget about increasing viewing figures, that 2% is the figure that needs to change.
Give TNA some of WWE's Raw viewers and tell me they won't pull in better numbers. If over 100,000 people can order crappy lineups like Vengeance, Unforgiven, or One Night Stand, I find it highly difficult that they'd have a problem ordering Bound For Glory or Slammiversay which were far better booked and had a more superior lineup.
Well if Bound For Glory and Slammiversary are such well booked shows, why did only 2% of TNA's viewers buy them? If TNA had 3 million viewers, what makes you think more than 2% would order the PPV?
It doesn't take millions of TV viewers and mountains of cash to convince your fans to buy your PPVs. ECW's buyrates from 98/99/00 were higher than TNA's are.
Do you remember the Heroes of Wrestling PPV from 1999? Probably not, because it had very little promotion behind it. It featured a drunken, coked up Jake Roberts main eventing with King Kong Bundy, Yokozuna and Jim Neidhart. It was roundly criticised as the worst pay-per-view of all time. It got 29,000 buys. People would rather pay to see washed up "legends" than see the majority of TNA shows.
Yeah and artists like The Roots get small numbers because they aren't good enough, proving artists like Souljah Boy, Bow Wow, and 50 Cent to be far superior than them due to their numbers.
Again, you show me that you don't understand the point I'm making. Look at it like this; The Roots start putting on a FREE gig every week. Every week a thousand people show up to see it, and every week Black Thought reminds them that they have a CD coming out at the end of the month. That's one thousand people who choose to come to the gig, presumably because they like the band or the style of music. At the end of the month, they only manage to sell 20 CDs. Is that a good figure? No, it's not. And that's what's happening with TNA. People are coming to the shows, seeing what TNA has to offer, and then at the end of the month they're saying "Is it worth $30 to see the matches that TNA has been building up for four weeks? No, it's not".
Understand now?
Maybe because Angle(deemed as the best wrestler at the time) and Samoa Joe(best in TNA) was a long time dream match for wrestling fans before Angle's TNA arrival.
Exactly, and TNA built it up well enough that 60,000 people were willing to pay for it. But TNA failed to capitalise on that momentum, and they haven't come close to that figure since. They were getting 30,000+ buys back in 2005. 2005, when they had a one-hour timeslot on FSN. 30,000 for Against All Odds, 30,000 for Hard Justice, 35,000 for Lockdown. Now, despite having a two-hour timeslot on a much better network, they can't manage that. Why? Because in 2005, TNA was putting out a product worthy of the $30 it cost to buy the PPVs.
It's simple. The lineup wasn't strong, so ratings declined.
Exactly, the product wasn't good enough. That's what I've been trying to show you. Trying to pretend that TNA is putting out a top-notch product doesn't work when the buyrates show otherwise.