The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
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Gilbert: Sports leagues will capture all long-term excess broadcasting profits
“So in the long run, if the main reason to subscribe to any given channel ends up being actually about the game content itself and not differentiated by stuff around the game, then the excess profits in the long term Will just be captured by the rights holders …”
Gilbert: Acquiring Capital Cities/ABC Cost Disney Its Strategic Clarity
“It was because it had ESPN, but it also cost the company It's strategic clarity. Disney never again would get to be just Disney. It's the flywheel business and the ESPN affiliate slash advertising cable business. And it's worth it because buying ESPN was this …”
ESPN's cash flow fully funded Disney's Pixar, Marvel, and Lucasfilm acquisitions
“If you go line up those three acquisitions, which sound ludicrous on their price tags, especially when you didn't know how they were gonna pay off, Pixar at 7.4 billion, let's even include the cash in there, that's about two and a half years of cable's then pr…”
The NFL traded NFL Network to ESPN for a 10% equity stake
“So August, 20, 25, the NFL reached a deal with Disney and ESPN to essentially sell the NFL network, the NFL's cable network and the NFL's official fantasy app to ESPN for a 10% equity stake in all of ESPN in return for this swap.”
Rosenthal: Sports content cannot build compounding value like Disney's flywheel
“Sports have a very limited shelf life. You are not going back and watching Manning cast episodes from last season. The flywheel does not apply here. So you can't build long-term value around that original content.”
Cable operators pay ESPN an average of $9.42 monthly per subscriber
“Nine dollars and 42 cents per month per subscriber that the cable operators pay ESPN.”
Gilbert: ESPN generates three billion dollars annually in operating income
“Yeah, it's a declining asset that does three billion dollars a year now in operating income.”
Rosenthal: NFL traded NFL Network to ESPN for a 10% stake
“In twenty-twenty-five, they do a deal with the NFL. The NFL trades, the NFL network cable channel, Into ESPN in return for a 10% stake in ESPN itself.”
ESPN and cable networks drove 60% of Disney's operating income from 2008-2011
“So we're flashing forward, but later on, in the 2008 to 2011 time frame, Disney's cable networks segment, of which analysts believe that three quarters of the cable network segment is ESPN, that segment accounted for 60% of the entire company's operating incom…”
Liberty Media Initially Gave ESPN US Broadcasting Rights for Zero Dollars
“Right after Liberty takes over in 2017, they do a deal with ESPN, much like Bernie's original European Broadcasting Union deal.
Liberty says, will you please show all of the F-one races on the calendar on ESPN?
We will give it to you for zero dollars.”
Rosenthal: Lalit Modi Was Ousted From ESPN Joint Venture With Nothing
“There's a big lawsuit about it, goes on for a couple of years, and at the end of it, Lalit gets booted out of the business, and despite his family's 50% ownership in that original ESPN Disney joint venture, he gets nothing.”
Rosenthal: ESPN lost 3 million subscribers in 2015, falling to 92M
“It would come out later in Disney's annual report that ESPN lost three million subscribers that year. Which still meant it had ninety-two million in total.”
Gilbert: ESPN's Monday Night Football package cost hit $2.7B annually in 2021
“So in 2006, just look at the Monday Night Football package that ESPN buys. O six, it was a 1.1 billion. 20 11, it was at 1.9 billion a year. And by 2021, it went up to 2.7 billion dollars a year now.”