The Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Iger told analysts the direct-to-consumer ESPN app often referred to as “ESPN Flagship” will be available to the linear channel’s existing pay TV subscribers.
The comment, which came during Disney’s second-quarter earnings call, was designed to reassure pay TV operators that the DTC app wouldn’t accelerate cord-cutting. Iger stressed that ESPN’s current linear subscribers will have access to all of the features of the upcoming DTC offering.
“First of all, to the last point, if you are a subscriber of linear ESPN, you will automatically get what I know we've been referring to as ESPN Flagship,” Iger told analysts. “By the way, it will not be called that. And next week, [ESPN Chairman] Jimmy Pitaro plans to reveal not only the name, but he'll also talk about our pricing strategy."
Disney will be holding its upfront on Tuesday May 13.
“The plan would be to basically be somewhat agnostic from a subscriber perspective, so that we can still do our best to preserve the multichannel ecosystem but, at the same time, obviously, want to grow our DTC business,” Iger stressed. “The difference is that the ESPN linear service will, if that's all the consumer chooses to watch, will not have the bells and whistles and those additional features that the DTC service will have. But again, we're giving the consumer the option of consuming both.”
Added Iger: “From a critical mass perspective, we have obviously an unrivaled portfolio of licensed sports on ESPN and an unrivaled portfolio of studio programming and shoulder programming, the bulk of which will be on the linear service and, of course, on Flagship. At some point, I've got to stop using that word.”
