The pay television business is changing rapidly in the United States and companies consider that sports are the key that opens the doors of the future.
This Tuesday, ESPN, a subsidiary of Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery have reached an agreement to form a new joint company that offers a streaming
sports service through its platform
.
The platform brings together the sports channels of the different companies, certain direct-to-consumer (DTC) sports services and sports rights, including content from the main professional sports leagues and university sports.
The creation of the payment service is subject to the negotiation of definitive agreements between the parties.
The offering, scheduled to launch in fall 2024, would be made directly available to consumers through a new app.
Subscribers would also have the possibility of combining the product with Disney+, Hulu or Max.
The service would unite linear channels with sports content such as ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SECN, ACCN, ESPNEWS, ABC, Fox, FS1, FS2, BTN, TNT, TBS, truTV, to which ESPN+ would be added, which already works as a streaming service .
It would offer content of all kinds: NFL football games;
NBA basketball;
MLB baseball;
NHL hockey;
European football, including LaLiga and the World Cup;
university sports;
motor, with Formula 1 and Nascar;
Grand Slam tennis championships;
Golf;
cycling...
Even so, many contents whose rights are in the hands of NBC, CBS, Paramount or Amazon are also left out, including many NFL games, the main sport by audience, the Olympic Games and the Champions League, for example.
The platform will add content to particularly target potential customers who are outside of traditional cable television packages.
These packages are going through a certain crisis.
Due to their high prices, many consumers have abandoned them and are opting to watch free channels and pay television services over the internet, with Netflix at the forefront.
Each of the allies would control one-third of the joint venture, have equal representation on the board of directors, and license their sports content to the joint venture on a non-exclusive basis.
The service would be rebranded with an independent management team.
One of the big unknowns is the price at which the new service will be marketed.
Although the platform is aimed mainly at sports fans, by including general channels such as ABC and Fox in its offering, they will also have other informative content, fiction series and entertainment programs.
It is a new way of packaging channels that in many cases are already marketed together in cable television offers.
The three groups have announced the agreement through joint statements.
“The launch of this new sports streaming service is a significant moment for Disney and ESPN, a huge victory for sports fans and an important step forward for the media business,” said CEO Bob Iger. from The Walt Disney Company.
Lachlan Murdoch, Chairman and CEO of Fox, said: “We are excited to bring the Fox Sports portfolio to this exciting new platform.
“We believe the service will provide passionate fans outside the traditional package with an array of amazing sports content in one place.”
“At Warner Bros. Discovery, our ambition is always to connect our leading content and brands to as many viewers as possible, and this exciting partnership and unprecedented combination of premier sports rights and access to the world's biggest sporting events gives us “They allow us to do just that,” said David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery.
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