The Walt Disney Company has reportedly had early talks with Amazon to work on the streaming version of ESPN, according to The Information.
- A potential deal between Disney and Amazon could see the latter offer ESPN through one of its streaming services while also taking a minority stake in ESPN.
- Amazon is just the latest in a number of companies with which Disney has negotiated regarding a potential ESPN partnership. Last week, it was reported Disney was in talks with Verizon.
- Amazon would make a lot of sense as a partner though as the tech firm has been more involved in sports recently, streaming Thursday Night Football and some New York Yankees games.
- As for the new ESPN streaming service, The Information also reports ESPN is considering charging between $20 and $35 a month, which would make it the most expensive streaming service in the U.S.
- The new service would show the same programming featured on the ESPN cable network, unlike ESPN+ which features more original, niche content.
- However, they also report that executives at Disney and ESPN are still doing research to determine what sort of price makes the most sense for this new service.
- Disney has also been in talks with some of the top sports leagues in the county, the NFL, NBA, and MLB, regarding potential partnerships, which we reported on back in July.
- Disney CEO Bob Iger has said he is open to selling Disney’s entertainment networks, like ABC and FX, but wants to retain control of ESPN.
- A potential 30% stake of ESPN is reportedly being made available, which would leave Disney with 50% while existing 20% shareholder Hearst Corp. will keep its stake.
- That 30% stake could be worth $9 billion, based on a valuation put on ESPN of between $25 billion and $35 billion by multiple current and former Disney and ESPN insiders.