Digitally Divided

For a person who graduated in 1999, a recent stroll through the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts was dichotic.  On one hand film-based cameras and projectors that were used over the past one hundred and twenty years populate the basement of the decades-old Norris Theater.  (A basement that has now been re-branded as the Hugh M. Hefner Moving Image Archive, believe it or not.)  On the other hand the towering Cinematic Arts Complex provides all the charm of listening to the DJ at a Clippers game play “Pump Up The Jam” from the 3rd deck of luxury boxes.  Every space is clean and every film is digital.  

A Cinematic Arts student at USC can create anything they want.  The lighting, the camera movements and even the special effects that are seen in major film releases can be added to student films.  Gone are the days when Hershey’s syrup was used in lieu of blood.  Everything is possible at the students’ request.  But does it make for a better experience?

The launch presentation for WWE Network brought on similarly split emotions.  

If the author were attending USC today, WWE Network would be a gift from the wrestling gods.  A college student can afford it ($10 per month), the content can be accessed via any high-speed Internet connection (USC’s “USC Wireless” campus-wide WiFi network is top grade) and the Network offers access to both party programming (all 12 yearly pay-per-view events are included) and time-wasters (an advertised 1500 hours of on-demand archives available at launch).  Instead of plunging $200 of summer work-study earnings into an online sportsbook account in an attempt to win enough money to cover a year’s worth of pay-per-views — as the author did in 1997 — all of those pay-per-views are available for the price of 75 minutes of work per month at California’s minimum wage.  

The 36 year-old version of the author is less excited.  

Live streaming services have come a long way, but cable/satellite provided channels are still superior.  For example, using MLB.tv (which was created by the same company that provides much of the infrastructure for WWE Network, MLB Advanced Media [aka BAM]) is a less enjoyable way of watching out-of-market baseball games than using MLB Extra Innings (which is offered through cable/satellite providers) MLB.tv, especially during opening day, sometimes has streaming issues.  Extra Innings never does.  The quality of the video feels duller on MLB.tv than on Extra Innings when viewing on a 55 inch HDTV.  And if a game goes to commercial and a user wants to flip to MSNBC to see Todd Martin’s definition of unbiased news, MLB.tv requires changing the TV input rather than a simple channel change.  

It seems hard to believe that WWE would have been unable to make the Network a pay channel (similar to HBO or Showtime) as part of cable/satellite subscriptions.  The price may have been higher than $9.99/month and it may have required users to access live programming and on-demand content separately.  That was certainly part of the pitch from BAM.  Their point of view is probably that the consumer price can be kept lower if cable/satellite providers are not involved.  They probably think that the number of potential subscribers who lack high-speed Internet is lower than the number of potential subscribers who lack a cable/satellite subscription.  And they think that the gap between those two groups will continue to increase.

There are holes in the Internet-only strategy.  Some people live in building with heavy WiFi interference from neighbors.  Some people stay in hotels where Internet connectivity is slow or shoddy.  And some people just don’t like having separate boxes for separate types of video.

Maybe going Internet-only is better.  Maybe having one interface for live and archived will be elegant.  Maybe forging their own path will give WWE the power to one day return to the event-based promotion style that so many lapsed wrestling fans prefer.  Maybe this move is the first step in freeing pro wrestling from the bondage of ratings and TV rights fees.  

But maybes are unknowns.  And what we know now is that eschewing the cable/satellite providers makes the Network less user-friendly to the author, and likely countless other lapsed wrestling fans.