5 Qs with WWE CEO Linda McMahon

What’s been the response from operators to WWE’s SVOD offering? Positive. We seem to be a natural in the marketplace. We bring a fan base and a library of more than 75K hours. We’ve only been in the marketplace for a couple of weeks, but we’ve had a lot of appointments, and we’re looking forward to making our 1st deal. Any plans for your own digital network? I think eventually we would hope to see a broadening of SVOD to a digital network, but that’s down the road. We’re a really conservative company, and we take things one- step at a time, but it seems to be a natural build. It wouldn’t replace our broadcast and cable programming, though. The "Mon Night Raw" on Spike last month with Chris Jericho and Christian notched a 3.6-that’s solid, but down from what such an event would’ve drawn 5 years ago. Have ratings peaked-can you reach those levels again? No. A week ago we did a 4.0 for the 2 hours, and we were up to a 4.2 or 4.5 at times. I don’t think they’ve peaked. They’re good and solid and have stabilized over the past year. We’re starting to inch back up. I don’t know that we’ll get to a 6.0 as before, but we have potential with our new stars. What questions did you hear most during your road trip with analysts and investors? What you just asked-‘where do you think the business is today and have ratings peaked?’ We explained the brand split with "Raw" and "Smackdown." We’ve taken these last 2 years to build these brands. It’s been like a coach rebuilding a team. We’ve seen a stabilization of ratings, and we’re starting to see them grow. I believe we’re in the beginning of the next growth cycle. We also talked about our international growth and SVOD. It was a positive road show. Favorite storyline? I liked, even though it was controversial, Shane defending my honor, where he wound up in the main matches against his father (Vince McMahon). It was a fun time for us.