In his first public comments since\u00a0Disney fired him\u00a0as CEO in November 2022, Bob Chapek told CNBC he sees no reason for Disney-owned ESPN to add minority partners.<\/p>\n
\u201cStrategically, I don\u2019t really see a benefit in bringing on yet another minority partner into ESPN,\u201d Chapek said as part of the CNBC documentary \u201cESPN\u2019s Fight for Dominance,\u201d which chronicles the network\u2019s digital strategy,\u00a0published Thursday.<\/p>\n
Disney\u00a0CEO Bob Iger told CNBC\u2019s David Faber in July that he\u2019d\u00a0consider selling a minority stake in ESPN\u00a0to strengthen the sports network\u2019s content or technology as it\u00a0plans a new direct-to-consumer offering, which he later said would launch by fall 2025.<\/p>\n
The company hasn\u2019t yet announced a deal to sell a stake in ESPN.\u00a0CNBC reported\u00a0in August that the network had held talks with the major American professional sports leagues, including the National Football League and the National Basketball Association, about potential partnerships or investments.<\/p>\n
Disney owns 80% of ESPN and Hearst owns the other 20%, a structure that\u2019s been in place since 1996. By searching for a partner, Disney wants to\u00a0<\/strong>enhance the content, distribution and marketing of the direct-to-consumer ESPN, which hasn\u2019t yet been priced, Iger said during Disney\u2019s\u00a0August quarterly earnings call.<\/p>\n Striking a partnership with one of the professional sports leagues could help secure future live rights, though it may irritate other media companies that bid against Disney for packages of games.\u00a0<\/strong>Bringing on a technology or telecommunications company such as Verizon or Apple could give ESPN broader distribution options by reaching larger customer bases.<\/p>\n Still, it\u2019s unclear selling equity in ESPN is needed to strike an arrangement. ESPN President Jimmy Pitaro, who also spoke with CNBC as part of the documentary, downplayed the need for the sports network to sell a stake in its business to build a partnership with a league or another company.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not about equity,\u201d Pitaro said. \u201cIt\u2019s not about these partners taking an ownership interest in ESPN. That is something, as Bob [Iger] has said, that we are very much open to, but this is about partnership and accelerating the launch or the adoption of ESPN flagship.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n In his first public comments since\u00a0Disney fired him\u00a0as CEO in November 2022, Bob Chapek told CNBC he sees no reason for Disney-owned ESPN to add minority partners. \u201cStrategically, I don\u2019t really see a benefit in bringing on yet another minority partner into ESPN,\u201d Chapek said as part of the CNBC documentary \u201cESPN\u2019s Fight for Dominance,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":2465,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2464\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}