iStockphoto / Müge Ayma
Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Chapek fielded questions this week during Disney’s quarterly earnings call. Disney added 12.1 million more subscribers this quarter than last, which should have assuaged any concern from panicky analysts and investors. But many wanted to know about the company’s future.
While emphasizing the strong position Disney is in right now with streaming across Disney+, ESPN, and Hulu, CEO Bob Chapek also hinted at potential changes in the future. ESPN recently parted ways with the PAC-12 Conference and Big Ten Conference which signaled the company’s willingness to reevaluate longstanding partnerships.
That move had many wondering what Disney/ESPN might do when their partnership with the NBA ends after the 2024-25 season. Disney’s CEO was asked about this after he was asked about competing bids from Amazon and Apple on sports rights.
Bob Chapek on facing streaming rights competition from Apple and Amazon:
Chapek said “We really like our strong position” and added that Disney has “exercised discipline” in negotiations like how they recently parted ways with the Big tTen Conference and PAC-12 Conference. He said when it comes to multiplatform rights, Disney has to “recognize that we don’t need everything, we just need the right things” and there remains an emphasis on flexibility with regards to ‘“toggling between” linear and streaming, remains a strategic priority’ according to a report in Deadline.
Disney’s CEO on their future with the NBA
When asked about Disney’s partnership with the NBA expiring after the 2024-25 season, CEO Bob Chapek said that Disney/ESPN “would love to be in business with the NBA” but noted that it had to be done in a “fiscally responsible way.”
Nobody knows better than Disney how important of a component ESPN+ and the NBA partnership is to their streaming user base. They’ve seen immense success bundling Hulu, Disney+, and ESPN+ together. And without ever emphasizing which component is the most important to subscribers, it’s evident there is a massive portion of the subscriber base who wouldn’t have signed up without the ESPN+ and NBA components.
A front office sports report from mid-October shed some light on what the future of ESPN/ABC/Disney’s negotiations with the NBA might look like. In that article, author Michael McCarthy suggests that NBA’s Adam Silver could approach a hybrid model to their next media deal. Suggesting the NBA “could re-up with ESPN and TNT for linear TV while selling an exclusive streaming package.”
The NFL signed a media deal worth over $100 BILLION in 2021 that’s spread across Amazon, ESPN, FOX, CBS, and ABC. It’s likely that Disney will have an advantage over Apple/Amazon in the upcoming NBA negotiations due to existing partnerships but it will certainly be interesting to see what happens in the future, and what that means for the value of all these various streaming services.