ESPN TKO Episode 3: Money Talks (And Fans Get Mugged)
The big merger was announced. Handshakes were exchanged. Press releases glowed. Everyone congratulated each other on the massive bag.
Then Mark Shapiro, President of TKO, stepped to the mic during a conference call and casually dropped this gem:
“That $29.99 monthly cost… I believe, is somewhat prohibitive, especially in today’s economy and the struggles that certainly middle and low-income earners are having with affordability… Until they get those deals done, that will affect our audience.”
We know it’s terrible for fans, and we don’t CARE, is what he basically said.
They moved WrestleMania, Royal Rumble, SummerSlam and the rest behind the new expensive ESPN Unlimited wall… then the guy in charge openly admitted it’s pricing out their own fans.
Oh, and just for the cherry on top:
Stephanie McMahon went on her podcast, read an ad for a VPN service, and casually told fans they could just set their location to Canada on Netflix to watch all the WWE content they want without dealing with the ESPN paywall.
Even one of WWE’s own was out here giving fans the workaround!
Money talks. And right now it’s telling fans to open their wallets wider… or just use a VPN.
