Thursday, April 13, 2006

Online video and ESPN's revenue stream

When Disney announced earlier this week that it plans to offer free streaming video of some of its most popular ABC shows, including "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost", it signaled that it is aggressively seeking new ways to distribute media offerings from all of its properties.
The exception: live sports events on ESPN. Asked about ESPN potentially streaming content for free, Iger said subscripton fees for ESPN are too valuable. 'It’s an incredible source of revenue. ... We’d be crazy to destroy that and put it at risk,' he said in a Daily Variety article. It will interesting, in light of CBS' success streaming NCAA tournament basketball games, to see how sports programming moves to new media platforms.

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