--Secures Carriage of WWE 24/7 with Canada's Rogers Cable
--Announces Plans to Offer Spanish-Language VOD Programming
Canada's Rogers Cable is now carrying WWE 24/7, the recently launched SVOD service from US wrestling promoter, World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). The service, which is priced at CAN$9.95 per month, provides 20 hours of content at any given time, and rotates four to five hours of new material into its line-up each week. Content on offer includes network shows, programming that was originally offered on pay-per-view, and videos from WWE's 75,000 hour library. Rogers and WWE organized a promotional event for the WWE 24/7 last week at Rogers' Toronto headquarters: the event featured such wrestling luminaries as "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, and Hillbilly Jim, and its audience included wrestling fans who won admission through a series of recent radio promotions. Rogers is the first Canadian MSO to carry WWE 24/7. WWE 24/7's US customers include Cox, Insight, RCN, Blue Ridge Communications, SELCO (Shrewsbury Electric and Cable Operations) and Click! Network.
In other WWE news: the company says that it is rolling out a suite of Spanish-language VOD programming. The programming will be offered to end-users on a transactional basis, separately from WWE 24/7. Initially, WWE plans to provide operators with three to five Spanish-language VOD titles per month (approximately five to six hours of programming). Offerings will include thematic shows, classic matches, wrestler biographies, and "historic moments" from WWE's library. The company says that programs will clear as-is, or may be digitally revoiced by Spanish-speaking WWE on-air personalities, Carlos Cabrera and Hugo Savinovich, who currently do SAP broadcasts of the company's flagship linear TV shows, Monday Night Raw and WWE SmackDown, and of its pay-per-view events, and who also host its international Spanish-language programs and a weekly Webcast. "This Spanish roll-out is our initial answer to those cable, satellite and telco providers who have told us they are looking for new, compelling non-English transactional content to provide for a growing and specific ethnic consumer base," Tom Barreca, EVP of WWE Enterprises, said in a prepared statement. "WWE is hugely popular with Hispanic viewers, and they are among the most loyal groups of pay- per-view and WWE consumer product buyers we've identified. As a frequent ratings leader among this valuable demo, we believe WWE can help our distributors attract legions of Hispanic fans to the new platforms like VOD and retain them thereafter."
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