PWInsider.com reported Monday what was becoming increasingly obvious to observers: the WWE Network will not likely be ready for its planned April 1, 2012 launch.
As a result, WWE is now eyeing a fall 2012 debut, at least according to the word going around Monday’s RAW. No further details were provided.
While WWE viewed a WrestleMania weekend launch as ideal, given the fact that it represents the peak annual period for mainstream publicity and fan interest, the desired infrastructure is simply not in place. In addition to the many outstanding “behind-the-scenes” tasks, there also exists the issue of getting enough national cable clearance to make an early splash. None of that looked likely to be resolved in time for April.
The April target date had never been formally included in marketing material, but it had been announced via various trade journals.
As for programming, PWI says WWE will move forward with the ideas it already developed, as that kind of content will be necessary no matter when the network launches. Programming itself, of course, signaled WWE’s need to delay the network–many wondered how WWE would fill a 24/7 schedule by April when so little of its planned original programming had gone into production. While WWE certainly has the content library to fill up a television calendar, it would seem ill-advised to launch a network without substantial “fresh” material.