“But what we do know is that at some point, when it’s good for our shareholders, we’ll be able to fully enter an ESPN DTC offering, the way you describe, and we absolutely believe that there is a business model there for us that will enable us to recoup growth on ESPN Plus in a full DTC manifestation.”
This is a delicate balance that Disney has already upset by shifting its attention away from cable channels with the launch of Disney Plus, and one that Warner is managing with HBO and HBO Max. Traditional pay-TV setups (including online streaming like Disney offers through Hulu with Live TV) continue to have too much of an impact on Disney’s bottom line for the company to bypass them and launch the full ESPN experience as its own streaming subscription as it has for many years, but the point where that will change is close enough that Chapek is comfortable openly entertaining the possibilities.
