Many decades? LOL. Here's the Disney CEO on his most recent quarterly earnings call:You mean SOME of it, right?
Not every game, like linear ESPN, right.
Life remains too short to try to save four cents.
ESPN remains linear only. And will for many decades to come.
As predicted.
As for the future of Disney’s linear TV channels, like ESPN: “linear networks are cash generators,” Chapek said, adding that “the hesitancy to move too fast away from those is really a cashflow situation.”
However, Chapek did tease a future where ESPN is available directly to consumers.
“At some point, when it is going to be good for our shareholders, we will be able to fully go,” he said, noting that whenever they decide to do it, “It will be the ultimate fan offering that appeals to super-fans of sports, and it is really only ESPN that could pull that off.”
For further reading:
Disney’s Direct-to-Consumer ESPN Would Be “Different Offering” Than ESPN+, CFO Says
"What ESPN+ is today is a complement to, not a substitute for, ESPN linear, so it doesn't make any sense to just port over all of those linear rights ... to an ESPN+ at the price point that it currently is," CFO Christine McCarthy says.
www.hollywoodreporter.com
Disney seems to be warming to an ESPN DTC offering
A direct to consumer offering for ESPN programming has often been called the endgame for the company, especially with cord cutting continuing to roll along. During Disney’s earnings call on Wednesday, CEO Bob Chapek seemed to agree with that sentiment, and seemed to talk about a potential ESPN...
awfulannouncing.com
It may not come as soon as 2024 (when I predict) but you can rest assured that a DTC version of ESPN isn't "many decades" away. Linear channel cable TV isn't going to even exist decades from now...