Disney recently announced new corporate plans for the company. In the structure revealed Wednesday, ESPN will now be an independent unit and streaming service for the giant media conglomerate. The move is sure to fuel talk that Disney could put the sports chain up for sale. However, the company’s CEO, Bob Igor, threw cold water on the suggestion.
CEO claims ESPN remains an important piece to the streaming service puzzle
“ESPN is a differentiator for this company. It is the best sports brand on television. It is one of the best sports brands in sports. It continues to create real value for us,” Igor proclaimed.
“It’s obviously going through challenging times because of what’s happened in linear programming, but the ESPN brand is very healthy and ESPN programming is very healthy. We just have to figure out how to monetize it in an ongoing and disruptive world. That’s all. But we are not in talks at this time nor are we considering a spin-off from ESPN.”
Igor says switch to independent streaming service is ‘inevitable’
While the network may remain under the Disney umbrella, Igor also made interesting comments about the future of ESPN. The CEO suggested that the sports network will surely become an independent streaming service.
“Regarding ESPN and when we might make the change, if you ask me, is the change inevitable? The answer is yes, but I’m not going to give you any idea when that might be, because we have to do it, obviously, at a time that really makes sense for the final result. And we haven’t gotten there yet,” Igor told Variety.
“And it’s not just about how many subscribers we could get, but also what is the pricing power of ESPN, which obviously relates to the menu of sports that they have licensed.”
Reports in late 2021 claimed that ESPN’s reach in American homes has decreased. The sports network is still in 76 million US homes, but this is a 24% drop from the previous decade. Disney previously bought ABC/Capital Cities in 1996, triggering an 80% stake in the sports network.
ESPN currently owns the soccer broadcast rights here in the US for Spain’s LaLiga, Germany’s Bundesliga, the Dutch Eredivisie, the English Championship, and the FA Cup and League Cup.
PHOTO: IMAGO / Icon Sportswire
