World Wrestling Teams With Lagardere Sports To Rev Up Sales

In an effort to boost revenues, World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:WWE) has reached an agreement with sports marketing agency Lagardère Sports that will facilitate it to acquire international sponsorship. However, financial terms of the deal were kept under wraps.

Per the agreement, Lagardère Sports will help in building partnership portfolio through its sponsorship proficiency and global sales channel in all international regions, excluding China. WWE Chief Revenue & Marketing Officer, Michelle Wilson remarked “We look forward to working with Lagardère Sports to continue to build customized one-stop shopping sponsorships for partners by leveraging our global media platforms and passionate fan base.”

We believe with increasing subscription based video streaming services WWE Network through its vast presence in over 180 countries will aid top-line growth. WWE Network paid subscribers increased 16% in first-quarter 2017 to 1.57 million. Further, we noted that in the said quarter WWE Network subscription revenue gained 14% to $43.7 million.

Recently, WWE and Groupe AB extended their partnership in to the 18th year. Per the deal, both the companies have signed multi-year agreement for airing WWE programming, which comprises of WWE’s leading shows, which includes the likes of Raw as well as SmackDown, in Switzerland, Luxembourg, France, Belgium, Monaco and Andorra.

Groupe AB channels will not only broadcast Raw on Thursdays and SmackDown on Fridays but will also air all WWE specials live like WrestleMania, SummerSlam, Royal Rumble and Survivor Series. WWE lovers can also enjoy all these programs in French and on demand.

Stock Performance

WWE stock has gained 6.5% in the past six months, outperforming the Zacks categorized Movie/TV Production/Distribution industry’s decline of 5.5%. Other stocks from the same space such as Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. LGF.A and Eros International Plc (NYSE:EROS) have gained 0.5% and 3%, respectively, while MSG Networks Inc. (NYSE:MSGN) has increased 5.2%.

WWE currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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