Andrew Whitaker

World Screen Weekly, April 3, 2008

President, Europe, Middle East and Africa

World Wrestling Entertainment

After posting a very strong financial performance last year, World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) has been restructured in order to take full advantage of the company’s potential for further growth. “In 2007, WWE had a record year, with revenues of $485 million, and we’re very happy with that company-wide result,” says Andrew Whitaker, the president of Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) at WWE. “International also had a record year, with $105 million in revenues.” As Whitaker explains, for WWE to continue to grow, the decision was made to establish a greater on-the-ground presence. “We’ve opened up offices in Shanghai, Tokyo, Sydney, as well as in Sao Paulo. The London office will now oversee all businesses in Europe, the Middle East and Africa,” he says.

The ten years of work building WWE’s television business have paid off. Whitaker has found that broadcasters throughout EMEA are becoming increasingly receptive to WWE’s programming. Key to its appeal is that the art of wrestling is as important as the entertaining stories behind the sport’s key characters. In Europe, Whitaker and his team have made new relationships in Spain, France and Germany, and continue to do business in many other key territories. “In the Middle East, we are on free TV or pay TV in every market, and, after football, WWE is probably the next strongest property in that part of the world,” he says.

Looking ahead, Whitaker’s goal is to broaden WWE’s programming offer. “We continue to have 468 hours of first-run original programming each year,” he says. This includes the flagship live-event show Raw, which airs on USA Network in the U.S., and SmackDown, which, starting this fall, will have its exclusive prime-time broadcast home on MyNetworkTV. “In addition, we have 14 super-spectacular special events which form our pay-per-view business. The headliner of these is WrestleMania.”

At MIPTV, WWE will be offering Raw, SmackDown and ECW, the three main live-event programs, plus the studio-hosted highlight shows The Bottom Line and AfterBurn.

WWE also offers 14 annual pay-per-view events; WWE 24/7, with 20 or 40 hours a month of remastered and repackaged classics from WWE’s definitive library; and mobile content, including a weekly made-for-mobile looped channel and on-demand video clips.

—By Anna Carugati