Charter CEO Comments on the New Disney-Fox-Warner Bros. Streamer
The streaming world received quite the shake-up last month when Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery announced a new joint venture to create a sports-centric streaming service.
The as-yet-unnamed streaming service will give sports fans access to Disney-owned ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SECN, ACCN, ESPNEWS, and the ABC broadcast network.
Warner Bros. Discovery will contribute to TNT, TBS, and TruTV, while Fox will pitch in FS1, FS2, and the Big Ten Network.
The new service is being advertised as an alternative to traditional cable and a sports-based streaming service like YouTube TV and Fubo.
“The launch of this new streaming sports service is a significant moment for Disney and ESPN, a major win for sports fans, and an important step forward for the media business,” Disney Chief Executive Officer Bob Iger said in a statement. “This means the full suite of ESPN channels will be available to consumers alongside the sports programming of other industry leaders as part of a differentiated sports-centric service.”
Other Companies Have Critized the Venture
Fubo, for one, was quick to denounce the new joint venture, calling the planned streaming service an “attempt to monopolize the sports streaming industry and eliminate competition” and filing an anti-trust lawsuit.
Meanwhile, Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish told investors that he believed the joint venture had too many holes in its sports programming.
“To the consumer point, for the true sports fan, this product only has a subset of sports. It’s missing half the NFL, a lot of college, has virtually no soccer or golf, etc. It’s hard to believe that’s ideal, especially at the price points that have been speculated,” he said.
Charter Chimes In
Now, Charter CEO Chris Winfrey is chiming in, echoing Bakish’s statement.
“From what I hear, whether it’s 60, 65, 70 percent of the sports content, I’m not sure it really scratches the itch for a sports fanatic, or that a sports fanatic has no interest in news or entertainment,” Winfrey told the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference.
Disney and Charter were, of course, locked in a stand-off late last year that saw the cable provider blackout Disney-owned stations. One of the most significant points of disagreement between the two companies was Disney’s insistence that Charter pay for less-popular stations to gain access to blue-chip stations like ESPN.
According to Winfrey, the new joint venture is just the kind of “genre-based” packaging Charter wanted to offer its customers.
“What I interpreted from the announcement is that three of the largest programmers decided that genre-based packaging is the way to go,” he said.
“So if you step back, it’s an admission from the programmers that that is the right way to go, together with a la carte, which is also something you thought you’d never see,”
While the new joint venture will still have to clear regulatory hurdles, including the Fubo lawsuit, if the new streamer arrives, it has the potential to shake up the industry.
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