Destination America macht von Ausstiegsklausel Gebrauch und wirft „IMPACT Wrestling“ im September 2015 aus dem Programm – Droht der Company nun das endgültige Aus?
WrestlingCorner.de berichtete bereits vor einigen Tagen, dass die Offiziellen von Destination America mit dem aktuellen Deal mit TNA Wrestling unzufrieden sein sollen und in den vergangenen Monaten das Interesse am TNA Produkt verloren haben. Ebenso wurde bekannt, dass der aktuelle 2-Jahres-Vertrag zwischen Destination America und TNA Wrestling eine Ausstiegsklausel enthält, die im September 2015 geltend gemacht werden kann. Diese Ausstiegsklausel ermöglicht es Destination America, das Format „IMPACT Wrestling“ bei Unzufriedenheit mit dem Produkt im September 2015 aus dem Programm zu werfen.
Nun berichtet Dave Meltzer in der neuesten Ausgabe vom Wrestling Observer Newsletter, dass Destination America von der Ausstiegsklausel Gebrauch machen und die Show „IMPACT Wrestling“ im September 2015 aus dem Programm werfen wird. So sollen die Offiziellen von Destination America der Meinung sein, dass die Show „IMPACT Wrestling“ – verglichen mit dem Senderschnitt – zwar gute Quoten erzielt, diese Quoten jedoch bei weitem nicht das viele Geld wert sind, welches der Sender in das TV-Produkt investiert.
Dave Meltzer schreibt wörtlich:
“Just days before the move was announced, Destination America made the decision to cancel TNA Wrestling, with the time frame given at the end of the third quarter (roughly the last week of September, when the current television season ends). Key people at the Discovery Channel network were informed of the decision at that point.
The word internally was that while they considered the ratings good, the ratings were not good enough to justify the cost of the programming. The other problem was that so many regular station advertisers specifically did not want to advertise on the show.
It should be noted that when the word was sent out, it was stated specifically that TNA would remain on Friday nights, with original episodes, until that point, and informing people for the fall season plans for Friday nights. Just days later, they were moved to Wednesday.
The decision was meant to be kept secret, very much like Spike kept secret publicly last year its decision to drop TNA for months after the decision was made and reported. It doesn’t serve the station or the promotion any good to publicly cancel the show this far in advance. The public acknowledgment was expected to come around the time the station listed its 2015-16 television season prime time lineup with the launch of up front advertising.
Those who were informed of the cancellation have not been told at this point anything different several days after the change of date was announced. But things obviously have changed, at least to the degree of moving days. So this story is very much ongoing.”
Sollte TNA Wrestling in kommenden Monaten keinen neuen US TV-Deal bei einem anderen Sender abschließen, droht das endgültige Aus der Company.
(Quelle: Wrestling Observer Newsletter)