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Disney Shifting Focus To Digital Products, What Does It Mean For ESPN?

“ESPN+ costs $5.99 per month and watching Watch ESPN content requires a cable or satellite subscription.”

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Disney CEO Bob Chapek was on CNBC on Monday to talk about the company’s future business plans. Earlier in the day, the company had issued a press release saying that it was restrutcturing to make its direct-to-consumer digital products its focus.

“We believe we’ve got the opportunity to build upon the success of Disney+, which by almost any measure has been far and above anybody’s expectations,” he told CNBC.

Chapek would not give any subscriber numbers or future projections for the company’s digital products. He did say that Disney+, ESPN+, and Hulu all have exceeded the company’s expectations and continue to do so each month.

Covid-19 has taken a serious bite out of other divisions in the Walt Disney Company this year. Its global theme park business has been in the toilet. Multiple feature films have been scrapped, delayed, or in some cases, forced to a pay-per-view model on Disney+, which lead to significantly lower revenues than initially projected. The streaming businesses are thriving though.

So what does this mean for ESPN and the sports world? Outkick’s Ryan Glasspiegal writes that the effect may not be obvious right away, but the model for live sports will eventually evolve.

“An emphasis on direct-to-consumer streaming will inherently mean further movement away from their previous modes of distributing movies through theaters. It will probably happen a little slower, but sports will also continue to migrate away from traditional TV networks.”

All cable networks have been hit hard by cord-cutting, which isn’t a new phenomenon, but the ESPN family of networks’ subscriber fees are the highest in the industry, meaning that fewer cable subscribers hits that network harder than any other. With 20 million fewer subscribers than the network had just ten years ago, it is missing out on about $20 million in revenue each month that it used to count on.

News broke last week that ESPN is bracing for a major round of layoffs. It seems inevitable given that revenue is down and recent stories about negotiations with the NFL and Major League Baseball prove that rights fees for live sports are not following suit.

So what does that mean for the future of the cable network? It is hard to say exactly. ESPN+ has slowly increased its offerings both in terms of live sports and original content. The service also has a pay-per-view deal in place with the UFC. Between it and the Watch ESPN offerings through ESPN.com, it isn’t impossible to think that the network could become a completely digital product.

In order for that to be successful, ESPN will have to figure out how to package and sell a subscription. ESPN+ costs $5.99 per month and watching Watch ESPN content requires a cable or satellite subscription.

Figuring out a fully digital pricing model is something ESPN should probably figure out how to do sooner rather than later anyway. We may be a few years away from leagues selling exclusive video rights to digital companies, but Amazon already has deals with Thursday Night Football and the New York Yankees amongst others. Apple is reportedly kicking the tires on PAC-12 football. We are far enough down the road that exclusive rights deals going to tech companies instead of television networks does not seem absurd.

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Final ‘Good Morning Football’ Episode from New York Studio Airs Before Hiatus, Move to LA

After today, ‘Good Morning Football’ will take a brief hiatus, then move to LA. But outside of host Jamie Erdahl, who else will join the show on the West Coast?

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Good Morning Football

Today marks the last Good Morning Football episode to air from its New York studios on NFL Network. After today, the show will take a brief hiatus, then move across the country to Los Angeles. But which of the shows beloved cast members will move along with it?

We already know host Jamie Erdahl will be there once she gives birth to her child. The newest GMFB show member gave an emotional send-off to the show’s New York studios before announcing she was headed for maternity leave and would see everyone in LA.

Host Kyle Brandt delivered this message late last night, saying that viewers should tune in to he and his colleagues and that “he has a lot to say.”

As the show ended today, Brandt said, “I am not saying goodbye to any of you…Candidly, I have a lot of questions myself. Here’s what I know: I personally will be intensely involved in Good Morning Football moving forward. And I want to spend the rest of my career with the NFL. And Good Morning Football is not ending, it is expanding. And it’s exciting because it’s a bigger show and it’s more show…It’s all in and it’s all happening and yes, we will be covering the draft. GMFB is leaving home for college…it’s time to evolve. And we are flattered that you are wondering and maybe worried about what’s coming next with the show…I am very proud of what we have built here…it has been a dream job and I know we are going to make a fantastic show from Los Angeles…I’ll see you this summer.”

Earlier this week host Peter Schrager delivered his own goodbye message — one that may sound like a man who’s not ready to move his family across the country at a moment’s notice:

However, no hosts outside of Erdahl have given confirmation that they’re either staying or going.

The NFL’s move to take the show from New York to Los Angeles has been widely criticized by fans and media members alike. Bill Simmons wondered if the move wouldn’t spell just the end of GMFB but the NFL Network as a whole. It has some wondering if this is the end of football’s best show.

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ESPN Coverage of Men’s NIT Tournament Quarterfinals Up 33% vs. 2023

Viewership of the Men’s NIT Quarterfinals on ESPN were up 33 percent compared to last year and featured two games that averaged over one million viewers.

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Even the NIT is riding the recent hot streak of live sports viewership numbers. According to data provided by ESPN, the 2024 NIT Quarterfinals are up 33 percent compared to last year’s tournament. Perhaps more surprisingly, two NIT quarterfinal games topped one million viewers.

The network’s Georgia/Ohio State matchup averaged 1.03 million viewers, while the Cincinnati/Indiana State contest averaged 1.02 million viewers. These two games were the most-watched NIT games since 2017 — including title games. Both Georgia and Ohio State have rabid fanbases, while many thought Indiana State was unjustly left out of the March Madness tournament, which could be a reason why viewers tuned in.

Much of the focus this season has been on the women’s game, thanks to Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, and the undefeated South Carolina Gamecocks, led by Dawn Staley. ESPN just had its most-watched women’s college basketball season since 2008-09 because of the increased interest in the women’s game. The men’s game, however, hasn’t been heralded as much this season for whatever reason, mostly because numbers seem to be holding steady compared to previous years. However, if the NIT is posting viewership wins, that should bode well for the NCAA Tournament’s incoming viewership totals.

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Report: NFL to Put Christmas Day Doubleheader Up For Bids

Bidding is expected to start at $50 million among the current NFL media partners but some think the games could sell for $75 million to $100 million apiece.

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The NFL will reportedly put its Christmas Day games up for auction, allowing its current media partners to bid for the games. Now, it’s up to CBS, FOX, ESPN, NBC, and Prime Video to pay up for rights to one of these two marquee games.

According to Front Office Sports Michael McCarthy, preference will be given to linear networks, so Prime Video and Peacock may sit this one out. Bidding is expected to start at $50 million but McCarthy and his sources expect that number to rise. John Kosner, the former ESPN executive, thinks the new Christmas Day games could sell for $75 million to $100 million apiece.

The NFL announced a Wednesday Christmas Day doubleheader during its annual league meetings. The league originally said it wouldn’t force games on Christmas Day if the holiday fell on an odd day of the week, though as the NFL continues to put games on days outside of Sundays, Mondays, Thursdays, and sometimes Saturdays, we’re running out of days that don’t feature NFL football.

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