lol.. Big Scoops Meltz has the following in the latest newsletter
Challenge TV in the U.K. will not be renewing TNA when its contract expires in January.
The deal was worth somewhere between $1.0 million and $1.5 million per year, significantly less than the Sony Six deal in India which was a six or seven year deal worth $5 million per year, and is the company's biggest revenue stream. Along with The Fight Network in Canada, the other television deal that brings in significant revenue is with Super Sport in South Africa, although both of those deals were smaller than the one with Challenge.
The main backer of the show at Challenge had left the station, and that, combined with the declining ratings, spelled the end.
TNA had routinely drawn in excess of 200,000 viewers on Challenge for years, but fell hard in 2015. Between January and May, the show ranged from 112,000 to 165,000 viewers and was the highest rated show on the station at one point for eight weeks in a 15 week period early in the year. The numbers collapsed on 5/15, as only five weeks between 5/15 and 10/23 was Impact even among the top ten rated shows on the station, and frequently fell below 100,000 viewers. Ironically, the show that aired on 10/23 (the 10/20 show in the U.S. with Eddie Edwards vs. Cody and Moose vs. Bobby Lashley) did 164,000 viewers, the second most of the year and was the top rated show for the week on the station, but by that point the decision had already been made.
TNA has been aware the Challenge deal was in jeopardy for months, as they were shopping the company around in that market for the past few months. TNA had a meeting two months ago with Premier Sports, a pay sports channel in the U.K. about adding Impact in 2017. The station ended up being completely discouraged after looking into the situation, in particular seeing the company's management reactions to the Spike and Destination America deals going back and both stations canceling the show, along with the declining viewership numbers on both Challenge and in the U.K. But TNA told Premier Sports that they would be available and no longer on Challenge in January.
Given that TNA tapes shows months in advance, and that's when the spoilers get out, they can hardly claim a problem is spoilers getting out on Friday morning in the U.K. before a Sunday night air date. And the fact is, spoilers have been around since TNA first aired in the U.K. after the U.S., which dates back nine years, and the three days between the U.S. and U.K. airing are on the long side since it was five days a few months ago, and ratings took a nosedive in May. It was also noted that when Challenge aired the Slammiversary PPV live, the audience was significantly lower (granted it was an unfamiliar and worse time slot) than the taped shows were doing at the time.
Challenge had also commissioned and paid for the British Boot Camp series, where TNA had the first chance at local talent. While TNA did sign Mark Andrews and Rockstar Spud off the show, they missed on Marty Scurll, who turned into one of the best performers in the world, as well as Pete Dunne, Mark Haskins and many others. TNA had a station that reached far more homes than WWE had, and also had people who could have been major U.K. stars on their roster like Nick Aldis (Magnus), Drew Galloway and Thomas Latimer (Bram) and could have made themselves into stronger U.K. based company since their best television shows were taped there every year.
It's notable that the U.K. market for pro wrestling is the strongest it has been overall in nearly 30 years, but what has happened is the standard of U.K. pro wrestling has been elevated greatly in recent years by ICW, Progress, Revolution Pro and Preston City Wrestling among others, all of which have shown increases in popularity in the last 18 months.
Interest in TNA in the U.K. is way down, and there will be no January U.K. tour in 2017, which has been tradition, after the ticket sales for the 2016 tour were down.
The U.K. shows, taped for television, because of the hot crowds and larger crowds than at the Impact Zone, made them the company's most major league looking broadcasts of the year.
The India deal on Sony Six can be canceled at any time since one of the terms of that deal was annual tours of India. Both sides agreed last year to the late cancellation of last year's tour due to an insurance issue. Pop TV would have seen all the coverage of the company from the Corgan lawsuit and all the other lawsuits that went public, particularly since the story got coverage in the New York media. That would have to weigh on their minds as far as wanting to be in bed with a company generating such bad publicity for not paying its bills. The Pop TV deal is significant because if they lose it, it would be the third company to cancel the show, which is terrible for a television show in the U.S. But even in keeping it, the deal produces virtually no revenue for TNA. Those close to Corgan noted his feelings that Carter made a terrible U.S. TV deal.
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