At least from a present point of view, such direct-to-consumer sales won’t be happening within the next five years.
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Bob Iger, CEO of The Walt Disney Company, has said that Disney could respond to cord-cutters by offering a standalone ESPN service for those who don’t subscribe to cable.
“If we end up seeing more erosion in the so-called multichannel [cable and satellite TV] bundle, quality will win out”, he told CNBC’s “Squawk Box”. “The business model may face some challenges over the next few years”.
“Disney [Channel] is another brand and product that could be sold directly to the customer”, Iger told Squawk Box.
ESPN is already available to consumers without traditional TV subscriptions through Dish Network’s Sling TV, a $20 per month streaming service.
The thing about ESPN is it covers sports so thoroughly that it could leave fans with no choice but to buy into its stand-alone platform if and when it goes that route.
Just as HBO and Showtime have gone over-the-top (OTT), ESPN could also be sold directly to consumers.
Meanwhile, ESPN charges $6.61 per subscriber, on average, making it far and away the most expensive programming network to license, among both broadcast and cable channels.
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Those number are, of course, ridiculously high and they’re even worse when you look at what people believe they should be able to pay for something like ESPN a la carte. And current cable customers still shell out (if begrudgingly) for ESPN-loaded bundles – according to a ComScore survey, more than 50 percent said sports were important to their TV viewing habits.
1 Comment on this Post
Champ Kind
An “over-the-top” ESPN offering in 5 year is totally useless. ESPN has a real problem on its hands if the cable bubble bursts well before 5 years time.