Name: Insights: Disney’s Bob Iger Isn’t Worried About Losing ESPN Subscribers
Uploaded: 2020-02-13
Duration: 4 min 12 s
Description: Viewers are turning to mobile. (July 2016)

[INTRO MUSIC] On the ESPN side-- because, if you're talking about technological transformation, there's definitely a lot of that going on in the sports world; so, you had phenomenal ratings for several live sporting events recently, the NBA finals was highest rated I think on ABC or ESPN since 2006. At the same time, there's been a slight slip in subscriber numbers on ESPN side. So, how do you think about what's going on? Is this an exciting time to be in the sports broadcasting business, is it a challenging time? Well Vicky, I actually spent 13 years of my career at ABC Sports, working for a guy named Roone Arledge, who was known as someone who embraced technology. And he adopted slow motion and rear angle camera and live satellite technology et cetera and so on, and he was quite inspirational to me. I think this is the most exciting time in sports media, for a variety of reasons. It starts with the power of live, and the power of sports, and the power of the brand ESPN, but live and sports today has never been more popular. And then when you think about technology-- and just what I was talking about-- first of all, the technology that can be now used to tell the story-- no, we don't tell the sports story as much as we show the story. Sometimes we tell it but, if you talk to Draymond Green who's here, you'd say, well, he tells the sports story and we cover him telling that story. But, the technology that is now available to us to do that is unlike any we've ever had before. And that makes the experience of watching the sport, I think, even better. Secondly, just think about the different places you can now consume sports. So, you talk about losing some subs or ratings being down, we had the highest number of people streaming game seven of the NBA finals than we've ever had before. And what's great about the technology that's available today, particularly mobile technology, and the technology that enables us to stream at a higher quality, without the interruption, and basically a better fan experience; it's unbelievably exciting. The number of people yesterday-- I didn't get home in time to watch the Portugal-France match-- It's OK. I got home to watch-- Yeah. You don't want me to talk about it? No. You didn't miss much, I was going to say. But-- [LAUGHTER] Oh, I got home in time to see the overtime periods. But, I was in a place where people were watching on iPhones, all over the place. That's incredible, because back in my day if you wanted to watch something on sports, you had to go home and watch it on a fixed set-- on a fixed television set on a wall, or you had to go to a sports bar-- those that existed back then. Now you can watch wherever you are. By the way some of the technology that Ronnie's invested in and that others invested in, you'll put some kind of glasses on and you'll just look up and there'll be a gigantic screen in front of you with an ESPN-- hopefully, an ESPN-- live sporting event on. So I think it's a great time to be in that business. I think we're going through a transition that involves the distribution side of that business, but one that I'm convinced that-- since sports is so great-- when you think about storytelling, you can't tell a better story than the NBA finals; seven games, the team that won the most games ever-- Draymond probably doesn't want me to talk about this but-- breaks the record for the most games, has a guy who wins the most valuable player award, unanimously, playing LeBron James-- rematch of the series a year earlier-- goes to game seven, no idea what the outcome is, goes down to the last shot of the game. That's a great story. So I think, if you think about content and IP, fantastic. And fortunately we have the NBA rights for a long time. [LAUGHTER] Yes. And you're paying for it, you're paying a lot of money for it. We're paying a lot of money, but I think for a good reason. It says a lot. You pay money for things that are of value, that other people want, so we're paying a lot of money for very good reason. [OUTRO MUSIC]

Insights: Disney’s Bob Iger Isn’t Worried About Losing ESPN Subscribers

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Disney’s Bob Iger Isn’t Worried About ESPN Subscribers

Viewers are turning to mobile. (July 2016)

on the ESPN side because if you're talking about technological transformation, there's definitely a lot of that going on in the sports world. You have phenomenal ratings for several live sporting events recently, the N B A Finals was highest rated. I think on 80 Peoria can since 2006 ATTN. The same time there have been there's been a slight slip in subscriber numbers on the ESPN side. So how do you think about what's going on is, it's an exciting time to be in sports. Broadcasting business is a challenging time. I actually spent 13 years of my career at ABC Sports, working for a guy named Rune Arledge who was known as someone who embraced technology. And he adopted slow motion, rear angle camera and live satellite technology and so on. And he was he. He was quite inspirational to May. I think this is the most exciting time in sports media, for a variety of reasons, starts with the power of live on the power of sports and the power of the brand ESPN. But Live and sports today has never been more popular, and then when you think about technology and just what I was talking about. First of all, the technology that can be now used to tell this way. Don't tell the sports story as much as we show the story. Sometimes we tell it. But if you talk to Ramon Graner's Hear you say, Well, he tells sports story, and we cover him telling that story, Um, but the technology that is now available to us to do that is unlike any we've ever had before. And that makes the experience of watching the sport even, I think even better. Secondly, just think about the different places you can now consume sports. So you talk about losing some subs, Ratings being down. We had the highest number of people streaming the Game seven of the N B A finals then we've ever had before. And what's great about the technology that's available today, particularly mobile technology and the technology of the navel of the stream, and a higher quality without the interruption. Basically better fan experience. It's unbelievably exciting in the number of people. Yesterday I didn't get home in time to watch Portugal France match. I got home to watch. Yeah, you know you didn't. No, you didn't miss much I got home in time to see this the overtime period, but I was in a place where people were watching on iPhones all over the place. That's incredible, because back in my day, if you wanted to watch something on sports, you had a you had to go home and watch on a fix set on, fixed over and sat on a wall. Or you had to go to a sports bar that those that existed back then. Now you can watch wherever you are and when you think By the way, some of the technology that Ronnie's invested in that others invested in, you'll put some kind of glasses on and you just look up and there'll be a gigantic screen in front of you with an ESPN with, hopefully ESPN live sporting event on. So I think it's a great time to be in that business. I think we're going through a transition that involves the distribution side of that business, but one that I'm convinced that sports so great you can't when you think about storytelling, you can't tell a better story than the N B. A Finals seven games. The team that won the most games ever. Dreamin probably doesn't want me to talk about this, but breaks the record for the most games has a guy who wins the Most Valuable Player award unanimously playing LeBron James rematch of the series the year earlier goes to Game seven. No idea what the outcome is. Goes down to the last shot of the game. That's a great story. So I think you think about content and I p fantastic. Fortunately, we have the MBA rights for a long time, and you're and you're and you're paying for it. You're getting a lot of money to pay a lot of money, but I think for a good reason it says a lot. You don't you pay money for things that are of value that other people want, so we're paying a lot of money for very good reason.