TNA-SKY TV Germany Story

The company has pulled out of its TV deal with Sky in Germany, which also covers Switzerland and Austria. Essentially this is the story. TNA provided its programming to Sky in Germany for free, with the idea it would expose the product in the European markets that WWE has done well in and get their foot in the door. They and Sky would work together on PPVs, where TNA would make money on the deal, plus they'd be able to merchandise in those countries and run house show tours. However, their PPVs have usually done only a few hundred buys and attempts to run in the market twice bombed. The contract expires at the end of the year and TNA made the decision to pull out, perhaps with the idea they would be able to sell the show to someone else in the market since providing TV for free as a way to generate other revenue out of the market failed. Sky was not unhappy with the deal. Sky also was the home of WWE, and WWE was constantly on their case about airing TNA, and WWE was a solid product that at least did some PPV numbers and drew reasonably well on tours and did solid ratings. TNA was low rated and generated nothing else, so they saw it as losing a low-rated television show with no upside and getting a major thorn from WWE out of their side. Still, from what we understand, people are questioning why TNA would make the call because the feeling is they won't be able to get another station with any exposure to air their shows, so they basically lose a market as there is no way to watch TNA legally in any of those countries.