LOS ANGELES—The Walt Disney Company has paid $900 million to buy out Major League Baseball's 15% stake in BAMTech, the streaming technology services operation that is used by Hulu, Disney+ and ESPN.

The deal for the MLB stake, which gives Disney 100% ownership, was revealed in a 10K filing with the SEC. That filing reported that in November 2022, the company purchased MLB’s 15% interest for $900 million.

MLB created the precursor to BAMTech in 2000 and Disney invested $1 billion in the company in 2016. It has since been increasing its ownership in the streaming technology services operation and now has 100% control. 

BURBANK, Calif.—The Walt Disney Company has disclosed that it is buying the National Hockey League’s 10% stake in Disney Streaming Services for $350 million and that the deal is expected to close prior to the end of Disney’s fiscal 2021 year.  

Major League Baseball created the operation, then known as BAMTech, as a spinoff of MLB Advanced Media, with NHL as a minority investor in 2015. Disney acquired a minority stake in 2016, which it increased to 75% in 2017. The operation was subsequently renamed Disney Streaming Services, which provides the technology for such Disney streaming services as Disney+ and ESPN+.

The NHL had the right to sell its stake to Disney in 2021 and it exercised that option on August 3.

When the deal closes Disney will have a 85% stake in Disney Streaming services with the rest held by MLB. 

The disclosure was made in a 10-Q report filed by Disney with the SEC with its quarterly earnings on August 12. 

The following obituary was provided by Dan Marshall, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Field Operations, for AWS Elemental: 

Manuel C. De Peña, Sr. Field Operations Director Eastern Region for AWS Elemental, died from injuries sustained in an auto accident on May 9, 2018. He was 58 and a resident of San Antonio, Texas and Ridgway, Co.

Manuel was a huge presence in the lives of all he touched. A devoted family man, he was extremely proud of his two sons: David De Peña, who graduated from Virginia Tech in 2014 with a degree in Chemical Engineering, and Jonathan De Peña, who graduated from Virginia Tech in 2018 with a degree in Finance. He and his wife of 28 years, Pam, met in Austin, Texas. The family lived in Austin, Texas, Meridian, Idaho, Tokyo, Alexandria, Va., Sterling, Va., Ridgway, Col., and Bulverde, Texas.

Manuel was born in Brownsville, Texas. He attended high school at St. Joseph Academy in Brownsville and college at the University of Texas at Austin.

In business, Manuel was impeccably straightforward and a supreme example of a person who truly cared about his customers. He was a voracious learner, always reading and studying. . Manuel seemed to be able to find a connection with anyone he met, and enjoyed staying in touch with friends and colleagues over the years.

Grant Nodine, senior vice president, technology, NHL, knew De Peña for 15 years and considered him a good friend.

“Manuel and I were fortunate to get to spend some great times together during his tenure at AWS/Elemental,” he said. “Whether it was together at NHL All-Star weekend, dinners, trade shows, or industry conferences whenever I saw Manuel he always lit up and I can say that one of his true talents was his ability to take joy in mundane things and to never take anything for granted. He was truly passionate about what he did and the people, myself included, who were lucky enough to work closely with him over the years are better for having done so. I was devastated to hear of his passing and will miss him terribly and sincerely hope that the memory of his professionalism, compassion, and joyfulness keeps his spirit alive in our hearts and minds for many years to come.”

Joe Inzerillo, Executive Vice President & CTO at BAMTECH Media, said: "You can tell a lot about people you meet in the industry by the fact you work with them through multiple companies. Manuel was a fixture in the encoding space and someone I respected greatly. He had integrity, grit and was a person I enjoyed working with to move this industry forward. He will be missed.  

Brian Angioletti, Vice President, Media Delivery at BAMTECH Media said, "I knew Manuel for more years then I can count, and over those years I found Manuel to be a thoughtful and honest individual. I trusted his opinions and always trusted that he was doing what was in our best interests. I genuinely looked forward to his visits and considered him a true friend and I will miss him dearly.

Pi Waller, Vice President, Video Operations at HBO described Manuel as "a good friend to HBO." "His thoughtful attention to detail and his vast knowledge of the encoding space was a huge value to us over the years. He was professional, courteous and always well prepared. Manuel was also a pleasure to work with – a great person and a great work ethic. He will be missed. 

A Celebration of Life ceremony will be held in Manuel’s honor from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm on May 26, 2018 at the San Antonio Marriott Northwest.

The family requests that in lieu of flowers, memorial contributions be made for a scholarship to Virginia Tech. Donations are tax deductible and may be made on-line by visitinghttp://www.givingto.vt.edu.

Donations are tax deductible and Checks should be made payable to The Virginia Tech Foundation, Inc. and may be mailed to:

Virginia Tech Advancement (0336)

Office of Gift Accounting

902 Prices Fork Road

Blacksburg, VA 24061

Donations may also be made on-line by visiting http://www.givingto.vt.edu.

Please note on your check or correspondence that this gift is for a “scholarship in memory of Manuel De Peña” when mailing tributes or include this note in the Honorary/Memorial Gifts section when making gifts on-line.

Donations in Manuel’s name may also be made to the mikeroweWorks Foundation atmikeroweworks.org - Giving Options. This group provides scholarships to people who want to learn a skill or a trade.

WASHINGTON—The road is clear for Disney to develop its planned ESPN-branded video streaming service after the federal government signed off on the company’s purchase of a majority stake in BAMTech. Neither the Federal Trade Commission or the Justice Department said it found any reason to block the deal on antitrust grounds, so it is ending the review early.

Read the full story on TVT’s sister publication B&C.

BURBANK, CALIF.—Disney is ready to fly solo with a pair of planned streaming services for both ESPN and its Disney-Brand content. With the acquisition of majority ownership in BAMTech, LLC, a direct-to-consumer streaming technology and marketing service, Disney will launch an ESPN-branded multi-sport video streaming service in early 2018 and a Disney-branded direct-to-consumer service in 2019.

Credit: Disney Channel

Disney had previously acquired a 33 percent stake in BAMTech with an option to acquire a majority stake over several years. The company has accelerated that process by reportedly agreeing to pay $1.58 billion for an additional 42 percent from MLBAM, Major League Baseball’s interactive media and internet company. The acquisition is still subject to regulatory approval.

Upon closing of the deal, Disney Chairman and CEO Bob Iger will serve as chairman of the BAMTech board. MLBAM and NHL will continue as minority stakeholders in BAMTech.

The planned ESPN-branded multi-sport service will offer games and events from MLB, NHL, Major League Soccer, Grand Slam tennis and college sports. Individual sport packages will be available for purchase from MLB.TV, NHL.TV and MLS Live. The new service will be available through an upgraded version of the ESPN app; pay-TV subscribers will be able to access the ESPN television networks in the same app on an authenticated basis.

The launch of this ESPN service comes as the sports network has seen declines in subscribers in recent years due to trends like cord-cutting and other factors in the decline of pay-TV subscribers.

The Disney-branded service will serve as the exclusive home in the U.S. for subscription-video-on-demand viewing of live action and animated movies from Disney and Pixar. Disney also plans to make an investment in an annual slate of original movies, TV shows, short-form content and other Disney-branded exclusives for the service. Past Disney movies and TV programming from Disney Channel, Disney Junior and Disney XD will also be included on the service. When the service officially launches in 2019, Disney will pull its content from Netflix as it will end its distribution agreement for streaming of new releases.

Both the ESPN and Disney streaming services will be available for purchase directly from Disney and ESPN, in app stores and from authorized MVPDs.

“The media landscape is increasingly defined by direct relationships between content creators and consumers, and our control of BAMTech’s full array of innovative technology will give us the power to forge those connections, along with the flexibility to quickly adapt to shifts in the market,” said Iger. “This acquisition and the launch of our direct-to-consumer services mark an entirely new growth strategy for the Company, one that takes advantage of the incredible opportunity that changing technology provides us to leverage the strength of our great bands.”

BURBANK, CALIF.—The Walt Disney Company has announced that it is set to acquire a 33 percent stake in technology services and video streaming company BAMTech. Originally formed by Major League Baseball, BAMTech will aid Disney in the delivery and support of streaming video and other digital products from Disney | ABC Television Group and ESPN.

“Our investment in BAMTech gives us the technology infrastructure we need to quickly scale and monetize our streaming capabilities at ESPN and across our company,” said Bob Iger, chairman and CEO for The Walt Disney Company.

As part of the new deal BAMTech will collaborate with ESPN to launch and distribute a new ESPN-branded multi-sport subscription streaming service. This new direct-to-consumer service will feature BAMTech and ESPN content and live regional, national and international sporting events. However, current content on ESPN’s linear networks will not appear as part of the service.

Disney will pay $1 billion in two installments to complete the deal; one now and one in January 2017. It also has the option to acquire a majority ownership in the coming years. Other details of the agreement include BAMTech separating from MLB’s MLB Advanced Media digital business; and the NHL has received a minority interest in BAMTech, as a result of a previous agreement.