WWE has been teasing the introduction of a tier system for the WWE Network for several years now, on Thursday the first of those tiers was quietly launched with the free tier. Viewers now have the ability to watch certain video on the WWE Network if they’re not logged in to any account, though it’s mostly comprised of videos that can already be found for free on WWE’s YouTube channel. As PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported, the available videos will change over time. Some videos that are available right off the bat include WWE Top 10, WWE Network Pick of the Week and various full matches.
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WWE co-president George Barrios gave some information on WWE’s plan back in September during an interview with The Verge. Eventually there will be three tiers — Free, Regular and Premium. No word yet on what that highest tier level would cost.
“We think there’s also an opportunity to super-serve our most passionate Network subscribers with a premium tier that’ll bring together more content for them, more features for them, and also integrating some of our other non-video services like our commerce — potentially integrating something like free shipping, bringing together our digital ticketing efforts in there,” Barrios said at the time. “It becomes the one place to experience everything WWE.”
WWE first launched the over-the-top streaming service back in February 2014. By the end of 2015’s second financial quarter the number of subscribers eclipsed one million. WWE’s latest financial report in October stated the network has an average of 1.51 million paid subscribers for 2019’s third financial quarter.
WWE loaded up the final two months of 2019 with live events on the network, including Survivor Series, NXT Takeover: WarGames and Starrcade. The last pay-per-view of the year, TLC, takes place on Dec. 15 at the Target Center in Minneapolis. Despite the show being just 10 days away, no matches have been announced as of Thursday.
