DirecTV, WWFE Part Ways
By R. Thomas Umstead -- Multichannel News, 10/16/2001 2:45:00 PM
DirecTV Inc.'s one-month pay-per-view truce with World Wrestling Federation Entertainment Inc. ended Tuesday with WWFE's announcement that it will no longer offer its PPV programming to the direct-broadcast satellite service.
Citing an inability to reach a new contract deal, WWFE said it will prohibit DirecTV from exhibiting future PPV events beginning with its Oct. 21 No Mercy show. DirecTV represents about 15 percent of WWFE's PPV-event revenue.
While neither side would reveal specifics of the dispute, sources said it revolves around a disagreement over license-fee splits. Sources said DirecTV wants to receive an undisclosed 'middleman' fee from WWFE -- similar to what cable PPV network In Demand L.L.C. receives -- for distributing the company's popular live professional-wrestling and other related WWFE events.
Last month, WWFE threatened to pull its Sept. 23 Unforgiven event from DirecTV over the same issue, but the two sides reached an 11th-hour distribution deal for that event.
Calling WWFE's decision 'irrational,' DirecTV senior vice president of programming acquisitions Michael Thornton said WWFE turned down a recent proposal that would have provided the company with a revenue split that was 'more favorable' than what it gets from the cable industry.
But WWFE president and chief operating officer Stuart Snyder called DirecTV's proposal 'worse' than the distributor's previous deal, adding that WWFE is simply asking for a 'fair split' in the revenues.
'We reached a philosophical difference concerning the [revenue] split and, therefore, could not come to an agreement,' Snyder said.
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