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Big thanks to Chris for sending this. I’ve been asked why I keep doing the ESPN posts. It’s because Disney is losing money badly. Bob Iger went to the “King Maker… tv convergence in Idaho and told CNBC that everything is on the table. Employees at ABC freaked out and the stock dropped to $85 (lower than during the shutdown). He then announced that ESPN is looking to turn everything into streaming so that the company gets paid directly (and its leagues) instead of waiting on a cable provider.
The league pitched at least 2 partners for the app broadcast but I’m waiting to hear back from one of them to confirm. So, if you don’t like streaming, you’re not going to be happy. Disney wants to roll everything into either Hulu or Disney+. ESPN would go from being a cable partner to a stand alone subscription (like ESPN+) with different rated tiers ($20 with commercials, $30 without) and that would be a boost in revenues from cable and satellites.
My concern is that hockey has a lot of “old school… fans who do not like streaming yet. You have to have good internet (much easier to get) and an apple box or smart TV to load the apps onto (or stream from device to TV). If this change is made, the existing deals may be renegotiated and that’s where I’m concerned for the NHL. NFL and NBA are king, but a huge disparity as NFL sees 18 million on Sunday, 10 million on Monday and Thursdays are 5 to 8 million. NBA sees 2 million and NHL sees 700k+ views.
They have 18 days to get this ready for the earnings report where it will be reported that Disney plus lost around 4 billion in the past year, parks are down, and the box office losses could now mount to 1.3 billion +. Just keep an eye out. If you’re not set up to stream, have someone show you how to get those apps. Bally’s, who knows. But ESPN is looking at a historic change.