Satellite distributor Dish Network said Wednesday it will not offer Sunday’s WWE Elimination Chamber pay-per-view event as the WWE prepares to move all of its future PPV events to its upstart WWE Network.
Dish, in a post on its Facebook page, said it will not offer the Elimination Chamber PPV on Feb. 23 adding that the WWE "is not willing to adjust their PPV costs to satellite and cable companies, which is unfair to their customers. We need to re-focus our efforts to support partners that better serve Dish customers. Other satellite and cable companies, including DirecTv have also expressed they may no longer provide WWE PPV events in the future.”
The WWE will offer all of its future PPV events on its OTT WWE Network service which launches this Monday, including its marqueeApril 6 Wrestlemania XXX PPV event. The WWE said will also continue to make its monthly PPV events available to cable, satellite and telco distributors.
So far no other distributors have pulled Elimination Chamber from their respective PPV schedules.
In a statement regarding Dish, the WWE said it is “pleased that the majority of our cable and satellite Pay-Per-View distributors are giving our fans an option to purchase traditional Pay-Per-Views as we prepare to launch WWE Network on Monday, February 24. Unfortunately, DISH will not be doing so. We hope DISH will reconsider for this Sunday’s Elimination Chamber Pay-Per-View event and especially for WrestleMania 30.”
Yesterday, the WWE will look to shop its popular Monday Night Raw and Smackdown franchises to other distributors as its exclusive negotiating window with NBCUniversal closed without a renewal.
