ESPN Streaming Step-Up Going “Extremely Well,” With 80% Of Subscribers Also Taking Disney+ & Hulu, Bob Iger Says
ESPN‘s launch last August of a beefed-up direct-to-consumer streaming service has been “a real success for a number of reasons,” Disney CEO Bob Iger told Wall Street analysts Thursday.
Of the new sign-ups to the service, which offers access to ESPN linear networks, 80% are opting for the “Trio Bundle,” which also includes Disney+ and Hulu, Iger revealed during the company’s quarterly earnings call.
The company outpaced streaming expectations in its fiscal fourth quarter, adding more than 12 million subscribers to reach 196 million overall. Disney has said it does not intend to regularly report subscriber numbers for ESPN’s new streaming outlet, which it views as a complement to the networks’ declining but still-lucrative linear operations. Research firm Antenna recently said ESPN drew 2.1 million sign-ups from its launch through September 30.
Iger said the strong take-up of the Trio Bundle is “a very positive sign for us in terms of lowering churn for us into the future.”
The CEO held forth at some length on the topic of ESPN’s streaming milestone. The question of how the sports brand would jump fully into stand-alone streaming has been speculated about for more than a decade, with ESPN well past its linear peak.
Iger said the new service has done “extremely well” with new users, which he defined as “people who had either been subscribers to the multichannel linear bundle or people who had not, but who wanted to engage more with the ESPN.” He also said pay-TV subscribers who wanted to “engage with us more deeply” have also taken advantage of the option of authenticating their pay-TV subscription in order to view programming via the ESPN app. The rate of authentication has been “very, very encouraging,” Iger said.
Along with the linear feeds, the app brings in other features like a personalized version of the company’s flagship news and highlights show, SportsCenter, as well as a selection of TikTok-like vertical videos.
“The algorithm seems to be working,” Iger said. “I know it’s working for me, where if you watch certain videos on ESPN and particularly if you click ‘like,’ then your feed is populated by sports, news, and sports highlights that you are more interested in.”
