MUMBAI: World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) has announced financial results for its first quarter ended 29 July, 2005.

Total revenues were $93.8 million as compared to $81.6 million in the prior year quarter, and operating income was $ 15.8 million versus $11.2 million in the prior year quarter. Net income was $11.2 million as compared to $7.6 million.

During the quarter, the company aired five pay per view (PPV) events as compared to four events in the prior year quarter. The additional event Backlash contributed approximately $4.3 million in revenues, or $2.1 million in profit contribution.

In India WWE airs on Ten Sports. WWE CEO Linda McMahon says, “One of the more significant items in our live and televised businesses for the quarter was the increase in pay per view buys. Each of the pay per view events produced in the quarter either met or exceeded the buys from the prior year. Another significant item was an increase in average attendance at our live events as the average attendance at both our North American and International live events was better than anticipated and surpassed last year’s average by more than 18 per cent.”

“Regarding the branded merchandise businesses, our licensing programmes continue to expand internationally with significantly better than anticipated sales in the toy and novelty categories. Our home video business also outperformed our estimates due in part to the success of our WrestleMania 21 title, which sold approximately 202,000 DVD units to date in the US making it one of our alltime best sellers. These results show that our continued investment in areas such as global expansion and talent development are beginning to yield positive returns.”

PPV revenues were $21.6 million versus $16.9 million in the prior year quarter. In the first quarter of fiscal 2006, five PPV events were produced as compared to four events in the prior year quarter. WWE will produce 16
PPV events in this fiscal compared to 14 events last fiscaL

Live event revenues were $16.5 million as compared to $17.9 million in the first
quarter of last year. There were 70 events during the quarter as compared to 89 events during the same period last year. including international events held in fiscal 2006 as
compared to 10 international events held in the prior year· The average attendance at the company’s North American live events was
approximately 4,600 as compared to approximately 3,800 in the prior year
quarter, while the average international attendance was 10,700 as compared to
9,300 in the prior year quarter.

International events averaged approximately $809,000 in net revenues and approximately $228,000 in profit contribution during the current quarter. This is compared to domestic event net revenues that averaged approximately $172,000
and approximately $33,000 in profit contribution during this same period. Television ad revenues were $10.4 million as compared to $10.6 million
in the prior year quarter.

Average household ratings for Raw were 3.8 as
compared to 3.7 in the prior year quarter and SmackDown ratings were 3.1 for both the current and the prior year quarter. Television Rights Fees revenues were $20.0 million as compared to $19.8 million in the prior year quarter.

Based on the first quarter results the WWE has increased its full year forecast and expects revenues of between $360.0 and $375.0 million,