PWInsider.com is reporting that the announcement by Vince McMahon on Thursday that WWE is looking to sell the pay-per-view rights to another major streaming provider caught everyone by surprise as only a handful of people were aware of the negotiations and not even those working in the WWE Network department knew about the possible change.
The report also stated that there are no plans to completely shut down the WWE Network as a service and there are long-term plans for the service which remain in effect. The multi-tiered version, which is rumored to start soon, is one of those plans and there’s also a free version of the service being worked on.
The original plan for the multi-tiered version included three options: free, regular, and premium.
The free tier was supposed to offer the same free-to-watch videos you’d normally find on WWE.com and YouTube plus timed previews of paid WWE Network content.
The regular tier was rumored to have the current WWE Network experience, combining free content with subscription benefits like live pay-per-views, on-demand streaming, and original programming.
The premium tier was to cater to the “most passionate Network subscribers” with more content, more features, and also integrating some of other non-video services like commerce.
If WWE sells their PPV rights to another streaming provider, then all this would certainly change, including the original proposed pricing.
