Credit: Qilai Shen/BloombergDisney CEO Bob Iger has made some controversial statements of late, including hinting that he was looking at auctioning off multiple parts of the iconic company. However, it turns out that potential buyers are not all that interested in what he’s selling.
In an interview with CNBC’s David Faber at the Sun Valley Allen & Co.’s annual conference (an event often referred to as “billionaire summer camp”), Bob Iger revealed that he considered linear TV (which is to say, traditional, non-streaming television) to be a “broken business model” and that he would be interested in selling off those parts of the company.
At the same time, Bob Iger strongly indicated that Disney would be solidifying its place in the streaming market with Hulu and Disney+, probably eventually abandoning the Disney Channel, Disney Junior, Disney XD, and National Graphic.
Related: “You Shouldn’t Sleep,” Bob Iger Slammed By Disney Family Member
ESPN and Disney CEO Bob Iger
As could be expected when the CEO of a company gives unexpected bombshells like that in an interview, the Disney General Entertainment Content (which runs the Disney Channel, ABC, FX, and other linear TV arms of the company) freaked out.
At the same time, pundits like Bank of America Securities analyst Jessica Reif Ehrlich immediately speculated that Disney CEO Bob Iger was interested in selling off the mega-popular sports channel ESPN to Comcast, one of Disney’s biggest competitors in the media world.
However, it does not seem like that is going to happen.
ESPN President Shoots Down Speculation
During a recent Q2 earnings call, Comcast president Mike Cavanagh said that his company was not likely to look into purchasing ESPN from the Walt Disney Company for numerous reasons (per Variety).
Mike Cavanagh said, “I’ve been asked about and read some speculation that in some way we might be interested in swapping businesses [with Disney]… in the sports space… And I would just say that that’s very improbable.” Apparently, tax considerations and minority shareholders would cause “tremendous issues” for Comcast.
He continued, “So I would put aside the idea that there’s… anything inorganic, you know, that is likely to happen around ESPN in particular, which is what we’ve been asked about.”
Sounds like that potential avenue for Disney CEO Bob Iger’s increasingly dramatic quest to cut costs (at any cost) is shut down.
Related: Four Things Bob Iger Spends His Ridiculous Fortune on Instead of Paying Disney Employees
ESPN and Disney Co-Own Hulu
One interesting wrinkle, in this case, is that the Walt Disney Company and Comcast (which owns Comcast Cable/Xfinity, NBC Universal, Dreamworks Animation, and has stakes in numerous sports franchises) are already in a partnership.
Disney and Comcast jointly own the streaming platform Hulu, with Disney holding a majority stake. Considering the House of Mouse allegedly has plans to go all-in on Hulu and contractually can force a multi-billion dollar sale from Hulu next year, it would not be surprising for ESPN to be used as a negotiating tool by one side or the other.
However, Bob Iger can probably say goodbye to any potential to get rid of ESPN any time soon.
Should Disney push it with Comcast? Let us know in the comments below!