As The Walt Disney Company explores potential partners for an equity stake in ESPN, the NFL and NBA continue to be listed as potential suitors.
According to a report from Front Office Sports, both leagues are involved in exploring taking a stake in the television company. Like ESPN, the NFL has been in search of a partner for NFL Media for the past two years. In a similar situation to ESPN, the NFL would like to maintain a majority of the company while selling minor shares of the organization to investors.
Late last month, The New York Times reported that Disney executives had made overtures to the NBA about an equity stake in the company, claiming “the benefits sought by ESPN in a partnership could include more closely integrating a league’s social media operations with the network’s, content like documentary rights and more in-game audio from players, distributing games it does not have the broadcast rights to within its apps and working together on marketing.”
A potential sales price of ESPN was tagged at around $24 billion last week by Bank of America Global Research.
Media analyst Jessica Reif Cohen has previously stated that the potential partners for ESPN fall into three categories: professional sports leagues, technology (Apple, Amazon, Google/YouTube), and distribution (Comcast/Verizon).
