As ESPN continues to have conversations with potential partners to develop a standalone streaming service, 97.1 The Ticket’s Gator Anderson thinks this will be The Worldwide Leader’s opportunity to leave linear television.
On Karsch & Anderson on Friday, Anderson was reacting to reporting from Front Office Sports on Thursday that Amazon was the latest entity to inquire about a potential minority ownership stake in the Disney-controlled network. And with the minority stake, Amazon would work with ESPN to launch a direct-to-consumer offering. The FOS piece also indicated that the asking price per month would be in the range of $20-35.
Anderson wasn’t sure what to make of the news, but he said the idea of Amazon and ESPN coming together makes him wonder how much is too much.
“If I’m gonna pay $25 a month for a streaming service like this, (show producer) Khang, I better be getting Amazon Prime, Disney – like the Disney+ – and ESPN. I want all three,” Anderson said. “I want it bundled together in a nice little package there. I’d be willing to pay like $30 a month if it meant that I didn’t have to shell out all the money I am for Amazon to have Amazon Prime and to have Disney+ and to have ESPN.”
“I get it man. I like combo meals myself. I always like the fries and the drink too,” Khang responded. “But I got bad news for ya, I don’t think that’s what’s happening here.”
He added that the DTC version of ESPN would be different from ESPN+, which is bundled together with Hulu and Disney+.
“They have these games, right, these national games,” he said of ESPN’s media rights to properties like the NFL, NBA, NHL. “Amazon we already know they have football. They’ve been trying to get more involved with sports as part of theirs. So the advantage for Amazon getting into this is they’re gonna help ESPN convert to streaming and they’re gonna get a piece of that pie. They kind of want to be like an investor and also they’re gonna help them do this whole streaming thing because that’s what Amazon does.”
Anderson had a question considering that it felt like ESPN had outgrown being strictly a cable channel.
“It sounds like what ESPN is gonna become eventually if this comes to fruition – and correct me if I’m wrong because I’m trying to figure this out – is that ESPN ends up being like HBO or Showtime,” he said. “It’s its own pay channel. It’s no longer part of basic cable. Is that what I’m seeing, or do you think that’s where it’s going?”
Khang said that was sort of how it was going to go, with the emphasis on removing or reducing the number of commercials and spotlighting more programming.
Anderson remained unsold on the idea.
“I think we’re really heading towards disaster when it comes to this,” he said. “If this is gonna turn ESPN into its own streaming service, and they’re gonna be like a Disney+ and HBOMax or Max or whatever they’re calling it these days. And are we no longer gonna see it on basic cable? That would be disturbing to me.”
