Former ESPN president John Skipper oversaw the most lucrative part of ESPN’s extremely lucrative history, and after the Worldwide Leeader’s financial info was made public for the first time this week, Skipper gave even more details about how big of a cash cow the company was for Disney most of this century.
“The height of the (cable) subscription market, ESPN was a bigger, more profitable company than the studio and the parks put together,” Skipper explained.
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Beyond that, Skipper expressed optimism that ESPN can steady itself and maintain a high-profit margin despite its current reliance on to the decaying cable television business.
“I don’t know that I believe the board and Bob (Iger) want to sell ESPN as a whole,” Skipper said. “But they might be forced to, because I’m not sure there is a minority partner.”
ESPN is known to be pursuing business partners and investors that could increase their distribution (such as a cellular company like Verizon) or their content (such as a sports league).
Skipper doesn’t see a deal like that doing much for the company.
“I’m not quite sure what that does,” Skipper said.
ESPN releasing its financial data was seen as an advertisement to potential investors. While the company’s revenues are on a downswing in 2023, ESPN is on track to make more than $15 billion this year. The majority of that money comes from cable affiliate fees. The other significant revenue driver is advertising.
ESPN can still ride both sources of revenue for a few years. It is not expected to launch a full direct-to-consumer product until 2025 at the earliest.
Still, Skipper knows the business of ESPN better than anyone. Like everyone, he also knows it has to change as consumers move away from the cable bundle.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is an Editorial Lead at Awful Announcing overseeing digital content and special projects. He lives in Phoenix and has covered sports media for Awful Announcing since 2023.