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ESPN is currently quite the quagmire for Disney corporate. Surprisingly, it's the business unit that makes up the largest amount of Disney's revenue, around 30%

ESPN is currently quite the quagmire for Disney corporate. Surprisingly, it's the business unit that makes up the largest amount of Disney's revenue, around 30%. [1] The last several posted losses for Disney (including the one just reported this month) have been primarily due to decreasing subscriber counts for ESPN. ESPN royalties are ~$7 per subscriber; $7 of your monthly cable bill goes to Disney just for ESPN [2]. They are obviously collecting that from many people who are uninterested in sports, as most basic cable packages include ESPN (if not ESPN 2 and so forth). Cord cutting is the single biggest threat to Disney right now, and I'm sure this, a major signal that people are excited to consume their sports via the web and that ESPN is inching closer and closer to death, has them crapping their pants. When Amazon buys Disney World, will they replace Cinderella Castle with a giant cardboard box bearing the "Amazon Prime" tape? ;) [1 (PDF)] https://ditm-twdc-us.storage.googleapis.com/q1-fy17-earnings.pdf https://ditm-twdc-us.storage.googleapis.com/q1-fy17-earnings... [2] http://awfulannouncing.com/2016/espns-rising-cable-fee-is-now-up-to-over-7-per-subscriber-per-month.html http://awfulannouncing.com/2016/espns-rising-cable-fee-is-no...

caseysoftware 10y ago
Who needs a fairy godmother if you have Amazon Prime Now? ;) (only sorta kidding..)
martinald 10y ago
I'm actually surprised how cheap ESPN is. In the UK, adding the two main sports networks (Sky and BT) adds something like $70/month, maybe more, to your bill. It's definitely not included in "basic" packages but i bet millions of people still subscribe to both. It's pretty much the only reason people have payTV, and something like 60% of households do have payTV as a whole.
- nikcub 10y ago
  You need five channels to get the equivalent of what BT and Sky provide with the Premier League, and you are absolutely bombarded with advertising. European football isn't really suitable to the same business model, so we have to pay for our sports.
Gorbzel 10y ago
I'm never one to resist change, but jumping to Bezos buying Walt's land seems a bit premature. Cord cutting may represent a move away from traditional coax cable packages...but actually delivering a non-trivial amount of revenue, subscribers, and staying power in an industry shouldn't be scoffed at. ESPN is in a pickle, but they remain the Worldwide Leader. Sports as an entertainment business is changing (quite a bit at the other end, where new and old media companies wage increasingly expensive wars over content acquisition as the pro sports leagues recognize they have TV deal leverage), but the company has some technical chops and understands scale and being on-site for events in the old world and new that the Valley (and Seattle) shouldn't assume they'll immediately be able to crack. tl;dr: Overpaying for Jim Nantz on Thursday night NFL "absolute poopfests" while running around shouting cord cutters overestimates tech's ability to take over traditional entertainment channels.

caseysoftware 10y ago

Who needs a fairy godmother if you have Amazon Prime Now? ;) (only sorta kidding..)

martinald 10y ago

I'm actually surprised how cheap ESPN is. In the UK, adding the two main sports networks (Sky and BT) adds something like $70/month, maybe more, to your bill. It's definitely not included in "basic" packages but i bet millions of people still subscribe to both. It's pretty much the only reason people have payTV, and something like 60% of households do have payTV as a whole.

nikcub 10y ago
You need five channels to get the equivalent of what BT and Sky provide with the Premier League, and you are absolutely bombarded with advertising. European football isn't really suitable to the same business model, so we have to pay for our sports.

Gorbzel 10y ago

I'm never one to resist change, but jumping to Bezos buying Walt's land seems a bit premature. Cord cutting may represent a move away from traditional coax cable packages...but actually delivering a non-trivial amount of revenue, subscribers, and staying power in an industry shouldn't be scoffed at. ESPN is in a pickle, but they remain the Worldwide Leader. Sports as an entertainment business is changing (quite a bit at the other end, where new and old media companies wage increasingly expensive wars over content acquisition as the pro sports leagues recognize they have TV deal leverage), but the company has some technical chops and understands scale and being on-site for events in the old world and new that the Valley (and Seattle) shouldn't assume they'll immediately be able to crack. tl;dr: Overpaying for Jim Nantz on Thursday night NFL "absolute poopfests" while running around shouting cord cutters overestimates tech's ability to take over traditional entertainment channels.