Disney’s Fight To Save ESPN From Cord Cutters | CNBC Documentary
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- Опубликовано: 19 май 2024
- For more than 40 years, ESPN has reigned supreme as the king of sports media. Growing its business by consistently raising the price of its fee to cable TV providers, ESPN now generates more than $16 billion in annual revenue. But the business of media is changing rapidly. In the past decade, about 40 million U.S. households have cut the cord on traditional cable TV. ESPN must adjust to find customers that aren’t subscribing to the cable bundle as new competitors including RUclips TV, Apple, Amazon, Peacock and perhaps Netflix bid on packages of live sports. This CNBC documentary examines ESPN’s strategy to fend off larger streamers and questions its sustainability in a digital-first world.
Chapters:
00:00 - 02:25 Intro
02:26 - 08:59 ESPN’s streaming plan
09:00 - 16:14 Rising cost of sports
16:15 - 20:07 Mounting competition
20:08 - 24:20 ESPN’s future
Reporter: Alex Sherman
Senior Managing Producer: Tala Hadavi
Edited and shot by: Darren Geeter
Camera by: Shawn Baldwin, Magdalena Petrova, Andrew Evers, Natalie Rice, Alan Rice, Eric Clark
Post Production Support: Erin Black
Editorial Support: Jeniece Pettitt, Julia Boorstin, Stephen Desaulniers
Animation: Midnight Snacks
Senior Production Manager: Kathy Mavrikakis
Executive Producer: Kamelia Angelova
Executive Editor: Jay Yarow
Additional Footage: Getty Images, ESPN
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Can ESPN Survive As Cable TV Fades? 
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ESPN already has a streaming app. People don’t want to watch their 20 shows arguing about whether LeBron is better than Jordan.
Well said
When the app actually works which is rare
Woke political charged views ah no thank you
App is a pain to use too, got it for La Liga matches ⚽️
Thats literally been espn’s main topic for almost 2 decades. A lot of media people owe their career to Lebron
How many of these "viewers" r just restaurants/Gyms putting on ESPN across all the TVs they have until they close for the day?
You forgot the break rooms / kitchens in office buildings.... When I go grab a La Croix guess what's on in the background w/ sound down..
You clearly don’t know how they calculate viewership
My wife and I watch a hockey game almost every night through espn +
If you like women's basketball then ESPN is for you.
@@jayjyayou don’t know either
There's no way that people want "packaged" channels when most of them are terrible. The audience realizes that advertised television should pay for itself. These companies should compete for audiences by making a better product.
Bingo
yep...why-do-i-want-to-pay-for-stations-that-show-Infomercials-or-trying-to-sell-junk(Home-Shopping-Networks)-or-reruns-of-old-ass-shows-you-can-watch-online-for-free...Too-many-commercials-of-organizations-begging-for-money-too
Karma at its finest: espn is less profitable because people are leaving cable due to rising prices caused by Espn asking cable companies for more money.
Disney is the worst.
Remember when sports used to be free on national tv. Then came fees for cable and then ads on cable and they kept getting greedy. No one feels bad. Without all that you don’t have these exaggerated sports contracts.
And what’s one reason ESPN asks for more money? If you don’t know the answer to that then bringing up your initial comment is pretty dumb. Spoiler alert, leagues like NBA are asking for more money.
@@osis254318686 nah, every business has overhead costs. Should we also give them a pass due to inflation, wage increase etc.? It is not the consumer's responsibility to make sure espn keeps their cost of doing business low. Instead of increasing prices companies can innovate and become more lean. Simply passing cost to customers is the lazy and easy thing to do. If they keep on jacking up prices (irrespective of the reason for doing it) consumers will continue to leave cable which means less money for ESPN as currently constructed.
The fact that you pay for ESPN on the go but cannot access all of live games on ABC or ESPN is just ridiculous and that factors in as to why their revenue continues to drop.
Just let me pick ten cable channels for $15
How? If ESPN alone charges $10, the other channels you'll get will be trash.
I swear bro
lol I’m all for cheaper cable packages too but $15? You want them to come wash your car on the weekends too?
@@jkacvbhijfn lol, it’s just the start of a negotiation
@@jkacvbhijfnwhen you pay upwards of $75 - 100 a month for the full package of 400 channels why isn’t $15 for 3 you like feasible?
it's pretty wild to think how normal it was for generations to pay a high monthly fee for a content service that was like 30% advertising
It only got bad in the early 1990s with various de/regulation to the cable industry
1970s and the 80s the cable networks relied on advertising. They couldn’t survive hence why they did affiliate/subscriber fees.
Ha ha good point cable could get away with that for years before us millinials grew up
You speak on scams this is one of the biggest running ones
Streaming has ads too now 🤡.
I can’t watch ESPN now it’s mostly adds
The reason why viewers went up overall for Monday Night Football this most recent season is because they put it back on regular ABC.
💯 THAT☝🏼🎯✅
One thing about ESPN that really rubs me the wrong way is the push for betting. Launching ESPN Bet shows they're trying to deepen their pockets and now are having showing with betting "experts" who in reality we have no idea what they're being told to say behind the scene.
Someone hasn’t hit a fat 10 leg parlay for big
The betting advertisers paid big money and while ESPN was dropping so of course they take the money.
@@jamisonmunn9215 I agree from a business standpoint I just hate how everywhere you look gambling is being pushed down our throats. I saw a billboard the other day for fanatics sports book. I wish there was advertising rules like smoking.
@@louiemurphy I hate that. I think the whole thing should be banned again.
Cable is fading because every channel is repetitive. Espn talks about the cowboys and lakers over and over, the news channels talk about trump over and over
they have to talk about the same things because they get the most ratings and more ratings means more advertisement dollars.
Or it's politics and DEI hires that don't know crap about the sport. Instead they use the time to talk about how much of a victim they are.
Remember when all these sports used to be on national tv and we didn’t have to pay cable subscription. Cable was meant to have no ads hence the fees, then they all got greedy with ads + fees. Don’t feel bad for them for losing money now. After all these sports owners now doing these exaggerated contracts on players, getting tax money to build their stadium palaces, etc. Many people were paying for services they didn’t care much.
Just make the average consumer pay to fatten their pockets. They are worse than the government.
The constant debate shows/formats are killing ESPN
those shows get the most ratings
@@marcelohendrix6139
You're right.
I cut cable a year ago. One of the best things I've done. Sports leagues and networks fail to look out for the actual consumer.
And they got super greedy!
I remember growing up I’d watch sportcenter 2-3 times in the morning, most the sport shows after school , and then before I went to sleep
In Germany, a sports streaming service has "disrupted" the Sports TV Business model maybe 7 years ago already. It hasn't destroyed the legacy broadcaster, and it's still bleeding money left and right, while still not offering the same quality. Live sports is just better suited for TV than for streaming, both for technical and economical reasons.
Maybe but as you get the RUclips or Amazon apps on newer tvs, you’ll see more people changing over to watch on those…. As long as RUclips and Amazon can finally get the quality of broadcasting for sports as ESPN had.
eleven sports now owned by dazn broke the monopoly of sport tv my country premium sports channel owned by every major telecommunication company (meo,nos,vodafone), still sport tv app and website require aa cable subscription meanwhile eleven doesn´t neither eurosports (they aren´t a premium channel but still)
Shh also don´t tell them about pirates🤣
What I see is that people are gonna be required to pay for so many different subscriptions that consumers will be right back at the same issues with having cable of paying too much lol. And it will be even more complicated because you have to manage all the different subscriptions and even viewership will go down because people are gonna have to make sacrifices on which subscription they can afford and makes sense to them
That's already a problem
Exactly. Even now I just like to watch football games. Some are on NBC, CBS, Fox, or ABC and ESPN but now the NBC games are also on Peacock AND the Thursday night game is EXCLUSIVE to prime video. So for the NFL you already have to pay for regular channels PLUS another service.. And future games will be sold to the highest bidder and soon it could require 3 to 4 or more separate subscriptions just to watch your team play every game in a season.. But NFL offers season ticket and you can pay a flat fee (a few hundred dollars) and watch every single game BUT this secondary option wont be available for many or all other entertainment/media for a long time. Wish you just picked what you wanted and only paid for that, but I might just get season ticket and accept missing some other stuff.
I completely agree with you but stagnating what you purchase or rent I should say is much better than cable. We rented Netflix for 3 months and knocked out all of the big money series. Unsubscribe from Netflix and watched band of Brothers on max. Ect. The point is nobody should be having 15 different subscriptions going at the same time if you are a generally busy adult. Just subscribe to the things you're watching actively and unsubscribe from the ones that you don't.
The issue that was sports is that it's a lot more fluid and depending on how they package it it could not work for sports in that regard
And it drives people back to free live streams
@@derrickmadsen7716I guarantee streaming services will institute some type service activation fee to eliminate “churn” as they call it.
People like cable, but it’s just too expensive. Can we get cable for $60 a month. No surprises or “promotions” when your bill jumps up to $150
Nobody I know likes the cable monopoly. FTC should’ve broken it up years ago. Technology changes doing what regulators wouldn’t is a good thing.
I'm glad that I cut cable.
There was nothing on worth watching
I cut the cord almost 15 years ago. Haven't looked back
But now that ad model is coming to streaming... lololol
@@ShidaiTainoyeah there was
@@normp3273Last had cable in 2011. What a colossal waste of money.
"World wide leader"
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
I know of 4 people who worked at ESPN as behind the scenes staff and nobody had a good thing to say about working there except for the cafeteria that saw a significant upgrade when Disney bought the company.
Go woke Disney are going broke
Can confirm, the cafeteria was the best part of working there
@@jakeconnell6290Wokeness has nothing to do with shyt. Fox News and other conservative networks are suffering the same fate.
That can be most companies , nobody likes their employers
Flick is company ? Always been quality
This was such a good doc. Really showing you the history of ESPN and how times are changing for a old company in USA media. Really enjoyed it, I always wished when I was a teen to work at ESPN
One of the reasons why Sports Center is doing worse is because they've changed it too much from what the original viewers enjoyed, and that was being able to see highlights from all teams in all sports, instead they just now focus on major markets like Boston, NY, LA, Dallas, etc.
Yea I got tired of listening to them whine abt the Cowboys losing. Been going downhill ever since the homie Stu Scott died smh
This. There is a three team juggernaut in the NBA Northwest division and the only team they focus on is Denver. Or the Lakers-Warriors race to tenth place.
Don’t forget now Kansas City Chiefs… (my point is if you have a current dynasty, they will be included).
ESPN is a sinking ship
…you mean actually covering SPORTS?? lol how crazy is it that covering sports is pretty much the only thing espn DOESN’T do🤦🏻♂️😂
This was a damn good segment. Great insight.
I'm absolutely SHOCKED how slowly these big companies are to adapt to the modern world. Netflix was streaming since 2007, and making some of the best shows and movies in recent history since 2010. Meanwhile, it took Apple all the way in 2015 to pull HBO out of their cable-only mode to allow you to subscribe without cable (WTF?). Or how it took until the pandemic for most media conglomerates to launch their own services. Now they finally noticed the decades-long trend and don't know what to do.
Comes to show that CEOs and corporate leaders are just as dumb as the rest of us, they're just confident enough to pretend they know what they're doing.
CNBC makes excellent productions. Keep it going, please!
Many people saw things clearly more than a decade ago, paying for rising cable bills but also getting nothing to show for it
The NBA is struggling with cord cutters too. The vast majority of NBA games require a cable subscription and the percentage of men under 35 who subscribe to cable TV is somewhere around 25%. How do you grow you fanbase when kids lack access to games?
this is something that all leagues except the NFL will struggle for a while, the whole RSN scenario. I wanna see how this will end.
Here's the deal. I cut the cord because I was sick of paying over $100 a month and not watching anything on 85% of the channels. Give me a deal for $30 a month with all of the ESPN channels and whatever regional sport networks are left so that I can watch games and that's it. No Lifetime. No Hallmark. No CNN or Fox News. No Disney or Nickelodeon. None of the garbage I don't want. If you choose to throw in local channels, cool. Otherwise, I have an antenna.
Get sling orange.
ESPN will now aggressively go into streaming. The reason why it's now possible: the majority of Americans now have access to faster than 100 megabits/second Internet access by cable, fiber optic, 5G fixed station cellular and now StarLink satellite. In fact, scripted programming will likely go all streaming, with only sports and news staying on linear cable.
You don't need 100 MBPS. Literally one-tenth of that is enough. I had 20 MBPS Verizon FIOS in 2008, and it was more than enough to stream anything I wanted.
@@mirzaahmed6589 I'd almost agree, but you want 100 mbps if multiple people are streaming at the same time.
"Streaming services have overloaded consumers with content." Very true
Says the people trying to control the content.
99% of people watch ESPN just for sports. All these highlight, people can watch on RUclips for free.
People don't care about their stupid politics.
Cord cutting has steadily become more expensive over the years. Many Cable companies took note and yearly raised the price of internet-only. Everyone and their mother has a streaming app to download nowadays. By the time you get the channels you want, plus Internet access, plus other fees you might as well go back to the cable bundle that includes cell phones.
I still don't understand why ESPN and these networks feel the need to pay what they do for on air talent.
They have “talent”?? Well why the hell doesnt espn put any of THOSE people in their shows?!
They are NOT going to Survive The Decimation Of Cable TV. Period.
They have ESPN app big dawg, they’re not going anywhere. Plus they get a bunch of money from the NFL combine each year. They have to much money
As long as people want to watch sports(and clearly they do according to the ratings) then espn will be fine. Create their own streaming platform, plus advertising dollars should be more than enough to keep the party going. The only threat I see is from the big tech companies if they decide they want to takeover sports, then it’s a rap for espn, they don’t have the money to compete with Apple, google, Amazon has.
@@evanmurphey
One article on the decline of cable TV said that Fox set up a subscriber online Fox app and made only about 1% of the revenue they make now from their channel on cable TV.
ESPN had better do a lot better than that if it wants to survive.
@@tupactargaryenit will be interesting… will cord cutters be willing to pay $40+ monthly for the espn/fox/turner streaming service? On the other end, has “cord cutting” reached its peak so we should expect around 60M cable TV subscribers (not dropping further down) after a peak of 100M+ several years ago? To be honest, I think it’s more likely both will be “no” which is bad for ESPN. ESPN+ hasn’t been a failure at 25M subscribers but the growth rate has flattened since early 2022… if nothing was done, it would peak at 30M.
@@tupactargaryenyounger generation probably won't have much patience to sit through all the bloody commercials. NFL and NBA games are full of commercials
Of course linear ratings are up for Sports...because the primary cable cutters are non-sports fans...that means a higher percentage of linear subscribers are sports fans. Higher ratings of a small pie is Pyrrhic Victory. ESPN is a victim of its own success - charging more per subscriber ultimately drove the boom of cord cutting.
It's because Neilsen started finally measuring out-of-home viewing in 2020 which has really boosted Super Bowl/NFL numbers.
ESPN commentators are unbearable
no u
Once Stuart Scott pass away, that was it for them and SAS was just too much for my liking,but it seems like he moving on to the podcast world
Bunch of screeching drama queens and they have the nerve to call it debate
For real...
like, "WHY ARE YOU SCREAMING?!" i hate it.
I watched Sportscenter multiple times per day up until about 20 years ago. I stopped almost cold turkey when they went from a basically sports news program to something where the anchors were all debuting material for the opening slot at the Chuckle Shack. Hard pass.
Cables still alive, just not cable companies… The antenna has significantly improved over the last 5-10 yrs. Ppl have had cable without a subscription for long now.
I suppose it doesn’t really matter if ESPN survives. The only thing they show anymore that people really care about is college football. And college hoops. As long as someone buys the rights to show that why does it matter?
Screw ESPN. I'm so, so , so, SO happy that Apple (unlike ESPN) saw value in American soccer and has MLS exclusively on Apple TV. It's awesome.
The problem with sports on cable TV is how Comcast and the like charge you "regional sports fees". I am in Florida and don't care for the Marlins or Panthers, but I cannot opt out.
ESPN+ is just BS, if they price the trio or ESPN right I might switch to them but its has to be a lot cheaper than Sling. If the Sling with sports is the same price, I go with Sling.
Another issue with baseball for example if you do not have cable and you get the MLB package they blackout the games in your market. So it forces you to get cable.
Would love to watch a sports event with no commentary at all. 😊
The Disney ESPN mafia, by its greed has just destroyed College Football.
How??
@@danamoore793by paying the players and giving them the power they have now
@@thedarknate0845i dont enjoy the game any less knowing the athletes can take care of their families, but i have a heart
@@michaelr3583 so it will be ok if your team spends a lot to recruit a player and he only stays for one season? These are kids and they should be thinking about their education that they get for playing sports
@@thedarknate0845 then the college should make them sign contracts and pay the kids themselves. Thats the point of a contract, you sign it and you're stuck
Their F1 coverage is half assed to say the least.
ESPN just sucks
think they would rather show you the WNBA vs F1
They just syndicate the sky sports broadcast onto espn
@@zackkotzias3304 I know.. and it's always cut short.
Everything outside of American football and basketball is usually half-a***
Streaming is Cable 2.0
RUclips is better than streaming. Streaming is broadcast television levels of cringe.
Content is king 🤴
Damn near as many ads for this 20 minute report as cable TV.😂
Next: How will CNBC survive the streaming wars.
😂
Whatever company invents a pick system for the channels you want would be successful.
I cut the cord 21 years ago. About 10 years ago I subscribed to Netflix
And that's more than enough entertainment besides some good RUclips videos
I'll tune into antenna TV for sports when it's a game of interested in watching... Actually I enjoy watching 15 to 20 minute highlights of most games on RUclips... That works for me. Saves me a lot of money and time
I always loved ESPN because that is where I mostly watched college football,basketball,baseball and others.
ESPN didn't 'charge' cable companies for the right to include their bundle in their channel lineup, they flat out extorted them to include them and raised the prices exhorbitantly every year. I honestly can't think of a company that I would take greater joy in seeing flame out completely than ESPN and actually it could take Disney with it also.
I want be surprised RUclips start charging to watch sport highlights lol
They do already. It's called advertisements
If it remains a part of the Disney bundle, I might keep it. If not, I don't need ESPN that much. I can get my sports news from RUclips.
You forgot the kid-centric alternative broadcasts?
Cannot believe STTDB cleared production on this video 😂
CNBC: excellent story. Enjoyed it very much from all aspects of the sports business.
You just need internet and you can stream everything
I feel like laura rutledge and the asian chick are the only thing keeping espn alive
If they could somehow centralize a lot of sports in a new streaming service that would be amazing. Getting something like RUclips TV is not great, you get some sports but then there are a lot of exclusive games and tournaments.
Great piece..
I'm happy, ESPN got greedy. They deserve what's coming to them..
ESPN should do for sports what Valve did for gaming. Valve doesn't really make games anymore, what they mostly do is be the hub that everyone uses to play other peoples' games. Stop paying NFL for exclusive rights, and instead get everyone else that is paying NFL to put their content on your website.
Dont RUclips already do that?? I mean technically, that's what networks do now. you can catch up with all of sports content on YT
Funny how they had to blur the monitors.
I rarely watch ESPN…plus I don’t like how they mainly promote the SEC and destroy the smaller conferences.
I know. The SEC is repulsive and idc if they are "good". They're only good at football. They're coming for the ACC next :/
SEC also dominates college baseball (currently 4 teams in top 5), gymnastics, track amd field, and x-country.
When I got rid of cable and just kept internet, my bill went from over $200 to $80 a month. I’m never going back to cable. I’ll continue to find sites where I can stream for free thanks 😊
Why pay for live sports when Streameast exists?
Sometimes it lags though 💀
I used to have morning ESPN sportscenter on my television non stop , for many years . I haven’t watch a second of ESPN since we got rid of cable, 4 or 5 years ago.
My least favorite product parties up with my last favorite motivation: late stage capitalism and profit margins
Over my many years as an professional sports fan the time I spend watching sports has shrunk year over year. I basically only watch the RUclips 10 minute game review on the NFL. After doing that for a while I enjoyed the lack of commercials and maximization of my personal time. The only live sports I now watch is the one where I do not have an alternative.
Those darn cordcutters!!!!!!!!!!! How dare they want to save money!!!!!!
Ill just watch the highlights on RUclips... major events can be streamed online.
For someone like me who grew up outside the USA, the US version of ESPN has always been useless. Give me the option to watch cricket, snooker, and badminton, and I will subscribe to their streaming services.
RUclips TV is something that more networks should embrace
Livestream but with Ad-Revenue
Excellent report CNBC.
Rosalyn Durant has blindly drank the company Kool Aid.
It’s not the cord cutters, it’s the politics, and sports in general. The NBA is a joke, and ESPN going all in on it
I have cable, I Love sports but took the package that does not include ESPN. ESPN, like Sports Illustrated, hasn't been good in decades. I hope it goes bankrupt.
IF THEY FIRE MOLLY ILL PAY FOR ESPN
I feel like this was an Ad for ESPN. Letting us know that yet another ESPN app will be releasing soon.
Just breezed through the Pat McAfee broadcast deal. That show seems like the future of studio broadcasts. Bringing a level of entertainment and information that isn’t available anywhere else.
We were all sick of getting $150+ cable bills but now the streamers quietly jack their rates eventually we will find something new that is cheaper. You would think the more customers you get the cheaper it would stay but they all continue to raise rates regardless. My RUclips TV went up over $10 seemingly overnight.
Streamflation is real. It will only get worse. More ads, and higher prices
The problem with ESPN is that they're a money pit they don't own any content you have to spend billions of dollars on sports rights
Great video!
This video is basically a PR production for ESPN it seems. 🤷♂️
Its amazing what has happened to ESPN. Use to reign supreme.
Personally they should open up to international subscribers.
Young men watch ESPN and old ladies pay for it. Old ladies don't buy streaming services to watch on their smart phones. Young men are horrible at maintaining subscriptions. Young men are more about the old bootleg. ESPN is killing the golden goose.
They’ll just merge into streaming platforms and soon launch live streams from within streaming where you have to pay additional for higher end packages that stream live and carry games. Much like cable.
Netflix will be carrying WWE events live next year. Max already has the sports package bundled in freely right now but will soon require extra money to continue it. This will increase and just shift with the technology and market. In other words: isn’t going anywhere and will always find a way to exist. Too much money to be made (or given up) not to believe it’ll manage.
They kept jacking the rates and priced themselves out 😂
Disney, as with everything they touch, ruined ESPN in 2018 after horizontally acquiring their competition, 20th Century Fox, the former owners of ESPN.
That LSU chant @2:29
Any time i turn on espn i turn the channel 3 seconds later.
It's surprising that ESPN and ESPN2 still require a cable provider to watch their primetime channels online. If they want to make that jump, they need the option to purchase those channels without a cable provider. I love watching sports, so it would be a no-brainer to subscribe to it.
ESPN manipulated the CFP to put 1-loss Alabama in over undefeated FSU. They've jumped the shark.
I want all leagues to follow MLS’s example.
Pay for a stand alone package and get access to ALL of the league games.
If you divide your product between multiple streaming services I will not buy it out of spite and become resentful of your league and streaming service.
Buy the rights to everything or nothing.
I think the NFL is slowly going there.
30 for 30: Woke to Broke, the ESPN story
All the major sports have their own channels now and some even have their own free streaming channels. So that is what is making them obsolete.
There's a simple fix to all of ESPN's problems.
Secure the rights with NFL, MLB, NBA etc to broadcast games from alternate angles and allow viewers to switch between these views in real time. People would subscribe to watch games the way we see it on gaming consoles.
NFL, show all 22
MLB, show the field from behind the plate
NBA, show the court from the elevated baseline