Outrage as US Fans Told to Pay Twice to Watch WWE WrestlePalooza — Unless You Have One of These 5 Providers

A torrent of anger has erupted after ESPN confirmed that many US viewers will effectively need to pay again to watch WWE's first ESPN-streamed Premium Live Event (PLE), WrestlePalooza, this Saturday. This comes after US fans are already giving mixed reactions to WWE shifting to ESPN with them having to pay higher subscription.

Why many US fans may pay twice for WWE

ESPN and WWE have announced that WrestlePalooza will stream exclusively on the new ESPN Unlimited tier inside the ESPN app for the USA viewers. This is a direct-to-consumer product that in its promotional bundle at least costs $29.99 a month for the first 12 months.

That means anyone who cannot 'authenticate' their existing ESPN subscription through their TV provider will need to subscribe separately to ESPN Unlimited to watch WWE WrestlePalooza, according to reports. As this was made clear, it was followed by ESPN executives acknowledging that the rollout is incomplete and that not every cable or streaming TV package can be used for authentication as of now but they are working on it.

Which five providers spare you the extra fee

So if you already got ESPN through one of a small group of providers, you will be able to validate your account and avoid paying the $29.99 monthly fee for access to WWE PLEs right away. The providers that ESPN listed in its release are Spectrum (Charter), DIRECTV, FuboTV, Hulu + Live TV and Verizon Fios. Therefore if you are on one of these and can validate your account, you will not have to pay extra fees for WWE WrestlePalooza.

However, as reports suggest, if your package is with Comcast, YouTube TV, Sling or Dish, then it is highly likely that you will not be able to authenticate and will face the added subscription unless ESPN finalises more carriage arrangements before WrestlePalooza.

Why the fans are outraged on the WWE-ESPN deal

The reaction on social media has been immediate and angry as is predictable recently with WWE's decisions. Many fans have allegedly felt they are being charged twice, at least for now, as they are paying their pay-TV bill and also paying the new DTC price, leading to fans calling the rollout a 'mess'.

This was preceded by outlets who also flagged the steep change in price for US wrestling viewers. Based on early reporting, the DTC tier will cost $29.99 a month which is reportedly significantly higher than the amounts fans paid for PLEs on Peacock. This issue for US fans was further ignited by the fact that international fans like in India and others get all of WWE on Netflix as it's included in their overall subscription. While US fans have to subscribed to Netflix to get WWE RAW and some PLE's, Smackdown is on the USA network, NXT is on CW and now certain events will be on ESPN. This confusion and the idea of multiple subscriptions just to watch WWE is possibly a factor why US fans are mad.

ESPN and WWE's possible strategy

Now that the perspective of some fans on it is known, its important to see it also from the business side. From ESPN's perspective, the WWE deal is a cornerstone for its new direct-to-consumer push which means WrestlePalooza is being used to drive subscribers into the upper-level ESPN Unlimited plan and to showcase the app's features and cross platform promotion. According to reports, ESPN expect WWE to be a 'foundational pillar' for the DTC product.

Furthermore, ESPN told media the $29.99 bundle which includes options to bundle with Disney+ and Hulu for promotional periods offers an 'insane value' in terms of volume of live events available on the platform. In simple terms one could interpret this as ESPN's strategy to convert casual viewers to paying subscribers in the US.

What ESPN says will change and by when

ESPN executives repeatedly told media in the same press conference they are working with MVPDs (multichannel video programming distributors) to expand authentication as soon as possible and they expect 'the vast majority' of ESPN subscribers to have access to ESPN Unlimited 'by the return of this calendar year'. That suggests a short-term fix may be coming for excluded providers, but maybe not in time for WrestlePalooza.

The bottom line for US WWE fans

The frustration of WWE fans is not purely about money as it seems, it's also about simplicity compared to WWE's broadcasting internationally on Netflix alone. Reading the reactions of fans, it seems like they got used to lower-cost and in some way predictable access models from the standalone WWE Network back in the day to Peacock's cheaper PLE access. The sudden pivot to a relatively pricier and confusing DTC tier creates both cost pressure and confusion over where and how to watch WWE events.