On the latest episode of his “Strictly Business” podcast, Eric Bischoff addressed the drop in the ratings for AEW Collision on July 1st, the likelihood of AEW All In 2023 airing on HBO Max, and more.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On the drop in AEW Collision’s ratings for week three: “I wouldn’t worry about it too much if I was Tony [Khan]. It’s the Fourth of July weekend. There are just not a lot of people sitting around watching television over the Fourth of July weekend, at least not as many as there normally are. That’s one factor. When I say I wouldn’t be concerned, I would be aware. I wouldn’t be panicking. It wouldn’t be keeping me up at night, but I would definitely be aware because at 452,000 viewers, that’s 40 to 45% of a drop from their initial premiere episode only three weeks ago.
“I predicted they were going to drop somewhere between 25 and 30 and they dropped 27%. I don’t think you can get more accurate than that in a forecast. But when you’re losing 40 plus percent within three weeks, let’s see what happens next Saturday. If next Saturday is a reflection or looks close to where we were this past Saturday, then if I’m Tony, I’m starting to think about things a little bit. What do I need to change? What do I need to do? If I’m TNT, is it more outside the church so to speak? Are you preaching to the choir with your on-channel promotions, or do you need to go outside and promote outside of your own network to try to bring some other eyeballs who might not otherwise be all that aware of AEW? So I don’t know, man, but I would be a little bit concerned if we see another drop-off, or even if we come in at 450,000. That to me would be an issue and I don’t think it bodes well for the fall. What’s going to happen when college football starts? What is that, a month and a half away?”
On AEW possibly having a streaming service: “I have no idea. I think, you know, just by being aware of things that are going on around us, I think if you don’t have a strategy for a streaming site, you’re probably sleeping at the wheel. So I would imagine there are discussions or plans, or maybe more than that, taking place right now. I think it’s a necessary evil. It’s not even an evil. It should be a revenue opportunity, but it’s absolutely necessary. I mean, we’re talking about it today. You know, we got a brand new social media platform out there in Threads. With technology evolving as rapidly as it does and can, you have to stay ahead of the curve. And I think anybody that doesn’t have a streaming platform, or at least a plan for one in place right now, is definitely behind the eight ball.”
On AEW potentially experimenting with a streaming service through AEW All In and putting it on HBO Max: “I mean, it does make sense because it’s a big event that’s got a lot of buzz. It’s going to look fantastic. It is a major international event. You can’t discount that at all. And you know, when an event looks that good and feels that important, you want to show that off to as many people as you possibly can. So I mean, I agree with you, it would be a great opportunity. And if you are thinking about possibly doing something in the future with AEW on the streaming platform or whatever then it would be now. You may also have somebody who’s actually running that network who doesn’t want to upset the brand or look like a lab project for random programming that generally doesn’t have any fit or promotion on that network. So I don’t like to speculate about things.”
