Sinclair Broadcast President & CEO On ROH: It’s An Unpolished Gem; Should Be In Same Light As WWE
President and CEO of Sinclair wants big things for ROH.
Sinclair Broadcast Group, the parent company of Ring of Honor, held their third quarter earnings call on Tuesday. During the call, Sinclair Broadcast Group President and CEO Christopher Ripley was asked how he thought Sinclair’s investment in ROH was working out.
“So, look I think saying that we’ve invested a lot of money is maybe a slight mischaracterization. Beyond Tennis, we really haven’t spent significant dollars on content and Ring of Honor, I think, we bought for a couple hundred thousand dollars. And it’s, we think that’s an unpolished gem that ultimately should be something in the same light as WWE,” said Ripley. “We actually sold out Madison Square Gardens for an event next year in 11 minutes. So, we know that that that brand has potential. It just – it hasn’t, we haven’t quite found the right dials to turn yet, but we keep increasing the grass roots support on it and it has just a very, very loyal and avid fan base which is what you really need to explode a brand.”
Ripley continued, “So, I guess, the overall question to your answer is when I look across what we’ve done in content, we’re in varying stages of development, but we’ve always had a good return on everything we’ve done, but I wouldn’t say that we’ve spent all that much risk capital when you consider the scale of the company overall.'”
Sinclair purchased ROH on May 21, 2011. ROH’s weekly television show currently airs in syndication across multiple Sinclair owned networks.
(Thanks to PWInsider for the transcription)
