Hints and tips:
...A spokesperson for ESPN told the Financial Times on Tuesday that the network has started providing secure logins to The Walt Disney Company app to some US Open players who have requested access, including...
...Jimmy Pitaro, ESPN chair Pitaro began his business career during the 1990s dotcom boom and had a long stint at Yahoo before joining Disney’s interactive division in 2010....
...The valuation multiple now ascribed to ESPN may be too low for Disney’s business, which includes theme parks and the movie studio....
...A major shift will occur next year when the ESPN sports network, a longtime profit machine, will become available as a streaming service....
...Walt Disney handily beat Wall Street’s expectations in its latest quarterly earnings and unveiled shareholder-friendly measures including a $3bn share buyback and a 50 per cent dividend increase, as it prepares...
...Bob Iger, Disney chief executive, said the launch would be “a significant moment for Disney and ESPN, a major win for sports fans, and an important step forward for the media business”....
...Trian also recommended that Disney+ and Hulu be fully consolidated and said it was “sceptical” of ESPN’s viability as a standalone streaming platform....
...But in his second stint as Disney chief executive, that position has changed as ESPN considers selling some of its 80 per cent stake to a strategic partner that can help it prosper in the streaming era as...
...the company in as many years....
...Iger has also drawn endorsements from heirs of company founders Roy and Walt Disney in recent weeks....
...If Disney wants a radical change it needs to consider sales. Sports network ESPN, which once bankrolled splashy purchases elsewhere, is slowing....
...“It was just, ‘go get as many subscribers as you can,’” says a Disney veteran. “And in doing so the studios were asked to make a lot of content.”...
...Those plans come as Disney is moving aggressively to cut its losses in streaming....
...ESPN remains a closely watched component of the Walt Disney empire as chief executive Bob Iger weighs options for the future of its media networks....
...As part of the deal, Disney will allow pay-television provider Charter to offer some of its ad-supported streaming offerings — including Disney+ and ESPN+ — to its customers as part of a “wholesale” arrangement...
...Winfrey has accused Disney of using the transmission fees paid by cable companies such as Charter to fund the very streaming services that threaten their business models....
...TV business in the US....
...This ESPN tie-up could eventually mean $1.5bn in annual incremental ebitda, thinks Penn. It had projected just $2bn of ebitda this year for its existing business....
...Penn would rebrand its US sports betting portals, available in 16 states and currently known as Barstool Sportsbook, to ESPN Bet, the companies said on Tuesday....
...The company, which merged with rival Discovery last year, has long been rumoured as a potential takeover candidate, with Comcast seen as the most likely buyer....
...Meanwhile, the company’s television business, still profitable, has also suffered, with demand eroded by online and streaming rivals as well as a sharp fall in advertising revenues....
...Selling TV assets and finding a partner for ESPN — Amazon, say — would cut profits but it would also help to relieve the company’s $44.5bn long-term debt burden....
...The US company’s operating margin for its sports business was 15.7 per cent in fiscal 2022 — but excluding Star and ESPN International, the group would have posted margins of 19.2 per cent....
...He joined Disney in 1986 and was named president of its parks and resorts business in 2002. He served as chief financial officer from 2010 until he resigned in 2015....
...Disney channels including ESPN have gone dark on the screens of around 15mn Charter Communications pay-TV customers. Such “carriage” disputes occur sporadically. But this one may be existential....
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