Disney thinks an emerging suite of so-called “skinny bundles” serves as a better way to make ESPN available to cord-cutters than Venu, a now-scuttled streaming sports joint venture with Warner Bros. Discovery and Fox Corp., ever would have.
Disney’s goal for ESPN is “to make ESPN as accessible as possible and in as many ways as possible to the consumer,” said Bob Iger, Disney’s CEO, during a call with investors Wednesday. “Some will want to consume it just through an app. Some will want to consume it as part of the more traditional, expanded, basic bundle. Some will migrate into in the direction of skinnier bundles or sports bundles only.”
Venu was seen as a new means of getting a good chunk of linear sports to an audience that no longer subscribes to traditional TV and cable. But the venture was brought up short by a legal challenge from Fubo, a sports-focused streaming outlet that claimed the rise of Venu would put it out of business. Disney opted to buy a majority stake in the company and combine Fubo with its live-TV business that had been based at Hulu.
More skinny bundles are on the way. Comcast earlier this month unveiled a new offering focused on sports and news and Fox Corp. said on Tuesday it planned to launch a stand-alone subscription offering focused on similar topics.
Such packages represent “a great way to distribute ESPN,” Iger said. As the company examined such an option, he added, “Venu basically looked redundant to us, and so this was a great opportunity for us to make ESPN available multiple skinny bundles, and then to actually merge” the Hulu live-TV product with Fubo. “Frankly, while we like being in that business, it wasn’t a core business to Hulu,” said Iger.
Plans continue for the launch of a “flagship” ESPN streaming product that will require a subscription, and will include “enhancements” tied to betting and fantasy sports, Iger said. Disney plans to offer options that will allow subscribers to Disney+ and Hulu to also bring ESPN into the package.
Disney believes “the more ESPN can be present for a new generation of consumers with a product that serves them really well, the better off” the ESPN business will be.
