WWE announces Q4 and full year 2019 financial results

WWE today announced financial results for its fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2019.

“During the fourth quarter, we expanded the reach of WWE’s live programming and further engaged with diverse audiences across platforms and formats,” said Vince McMahon, WWE Chairman & Chief Executive Officer. “We believe the value of live sports will continue to increase, particularly in today’s evolving media landscape, and we are well positioned to take advantage of this trend to maximize the value of our content.”

“For the year, we achieved record revenue and Adjusted OIBDA. However, with the delay in completing a Middle East distribution agreement as well as lower business performance than anticipated, our results were at the low-end of guidance,” added Frank Riddick, interim Chief Financial Officer. “As we work to strengthen engagement in 2020, we are pursuing several strategic initiatives that could increase the monetization of our content, including the distribution of content in the Middle East and India as well as strategic alternatives for our direct-to-consumer service, WWE Network. Excluding the potential impact of these initiatives, we expect significant revenue growth based on the full year impact of our new content distribution agreements in the U.S. and anticipate Adjusted OIBDA of $250 to $300 million. Management believes it has the potential to exceed this range, but is unable to provide additional guidance at this time.”

Q4 2019 highlights included revenues increasing 18% to $322.8 million, which was the highest quarterly revenue in WWE history and operating income increase of 87% to $99.8 million.

In the full year 2019, WWE highlighted the $960.4 million in record revenue, the move of Smackdown to FOX, the new deals with BT Sport and Channel 5 in the United Kingdom, FOX Sports in Latin America, PP Sports in China and SuperSport in Africa.

The full press release can be read at corporate.wwe.com.