DisneyESPN is at a crossroads.
For greater than 40 years, the world’s largest sports network has increased annual revenues by increasing cable TV subscription fees. In the Eighties, ESPN first charged pay-TV distributors lower than $1 per 30 days per subscriber. In 2023, the monthly fee for the ESPN service was $9.42 per subscriber, in keeping with S&P Global Market Intelligence.
This business model is eroding. Since 2013, tens of thousands and thousands Americans canceled their cable TV subscriptions, raising questions on ESPN’s future in an increasingly fragmented media landscape. CNBC spoke with quite a few current and former Disney and ESPN executives in regards to the network’s future path as a part of the digital documentary “ESPN’s Fight for Supremacy.”
ESPN reported that domestic and international revenue grew just 1% to $4.4 billion in its most up-to-date fiscal quarter. The network can not depend on price increases to make up the difference as cable TV customer numbers decline.
The company has a brand new two-part streaming plan to revitalize growth. First, this fall, Disney will make ESPN available outside of its traditional cable package for the primary time as a part of a three way partnership with Warner Bros. Discovery AND Fox. The service, which doesn’t yet have a price tag, will goal non-cable customers who want to observe sports but don’t need to pay $80 to $100 a month for a full network package.
Second, in fall 2025, ESPN will launch its flagship streaming service, which is able to include the whole lot ESPN has to supply, each live and on-demand. It will feature unprecedented personalization and interaction ESPN bet, the corporate’s licensed online betting and fantasy sports site, aimed toward younger fans. The product will go far beyond ESPN+, which exists as a $10.99 streaming service and doesn’t include ESPN’s costliest programming, equivalent to all of “Monday Night Football.”
ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro
Photography by Steve Zak | FilmMagic | Getty Images
“The industry is in a transitional phase right now,” said ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro in an interview for the CNBC documentary.
“We are seeing the decline of the traditional ecosystem, the cable and satellite world,” Pitaro said. “There is a shift to digital technology. This is definitely the biggest piece of our future.”
Pitaro and programming chief Roz Durant defended ESPN’s expansion plan to CNBC, while former Disney and ESPN executives Bob Chapek, John Skipper and Mark Shapiro identified that the so-called world leader in sports faces many potential obstacles while he charts his path forward.
Watch the documentary to listen to the entire story.
