Source: The Wrestling Observer Newsletter
WWE now earns $1,154,000 per week in rights fees when you combine Raw, Smackdown and ECW. However, because of the cost of producing the TV in High Definition, the cost of each television taping went from $600,000 last year to $750,000 this year. Running two television tapings per week, the weekly cost has jumped to $1.5 million and is more than they get paid for the shows domestically. Despite this, the company is still profitable because they also receive $692,000 weekly from international television deals.
ECW did a 1.18 rating which turns into a final 1.2 cable rating. That is up from last week which likely has something to do with the draft and now NBA finals.
