Understanding ESPN's big bet on how to keep up with fans: MoneyCall

New York Times

5 hours ago

Welcome back to MoneyCall, The Athletic's weekly sports business cheat sheet. (Was this forwarded to you? Subscribe here.)
Name-dropped today: Jimmy Pitaro, Rob Manfred, Colin Kaepernick, Taylor Swift, John Wall, Andrew Luck, Allison Howard, Jerry Jones, Jay Cutler, Kent Lacob and more. Let's go:
ESPN's big bet to stay on top
A fascinating data point came out yesterday from Nielsen: In July, for the third straight month, streaming platforms had bigger audiences than the combined total of broadcast TV and cable audiences. Even more eye-opening: The pairing of YouTube and Netflix alone topped broadcast, in total, and equaled cable, in total.
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That's the backdrop for tomorrow's debut of ESPN's new subscription streaming service ('ESPN'), as well as a revamped app, expected to be a modernized gateway to all of ESPN's live games and programming outside of a cable bundle.
My colleague Andrew Marchand has the must-read story of how ESPN got to this company-defining moment, under its chairman Jimmy Pitaro, who has spent north of $80 billion on live-sports rights during his tenure to keep fans tuned in to ESPN and to stave off the Thanos-like inevitability of YouTube and Netflix consumption.
To support Marchand's reporting, I sifted through 45 years of ESPN subscriber data. Back in 2011, when ESPN hit its peak of more than 100 million cable subscribers, I don't think anyone inside the network would have seen this coming: barely 60 million subscribers just 14 years later, with competitors like YouTube and Netflix dwarfing them.
That said: ESPN has always been way more forward-leaning than most media companies about embracing new content and distribution strategies, from ESPNet.SportsZone.com to ESPN Zone restaurants to ESPN the Phone to ESPN+ to just this month trying to acquire NFL Network and paying a billion-plus for WWE rights.
The new streaming service may or may not hit with new subscribers — strategically, it's equally important for 60 million cable subscribers (who don't have to pay extra for access to stream games through ESPN's app) to use the app than it is to get however-many millions of cord-cutters to pay a monthly subscription fee.
But just read Marchand: Tomorrow's move had to be made.
Big talkers from the sports business industry…
MLB realignment(?!?) 'I think if we expand, it provides an opportunity for us to geographically realign' was your quote of the week, from MLB commish Rob Manfred.
I love our projection of what that could look like: Eight four-team divisions, including a brand-new 'AL South' featuring the Royals, Rangers, Astros and Rockies.
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Speaking of MLB: Those new temporary TV deals should be coming any week now. I'm so intrigued about the potential for someone like Netflix to turn the Home Run Derby into an NFL-on-Christmas spectacle.
U.S. Open mixed doubles mania: Purists hate it, I love it, ESPN is embracing it.
Premier League 2025-2026 opens: If you didn't see it, this analysis by my colleague Chris Weatherspoon about who owns your favorite club (and what else they own) was my favorite read among MANY amazing PL reads to get the season launched.
Taylor Swift appearance on Travis Kelce's podcast breaks YouTube: I'm biased, but I think my colleagues Hannah Vanbiber, Charlotte Carroll and Jayna Bardahl had the best takeaways from last week's cultural mega-event. (Loved the 'Sports Gossip Show' duo's takes, too.
Other current obsessions: John Wall retirement encomiums … what happened to the Kaepernick docuseries? … fantasy football draft prep ('Bill' Croskey-Merritt mania!) … interval walking … NFL x Crocs collab (why not!) …
The most interesting executive case study in college football
As college football reaches 'Week 0' (weird branding, to be sure, but right in line with college football's quirkiness), Stanford will take the field in Honolulu this weekend to play its season opener against Hawaii.
This week, we published the definitive profile of Stanford football general manager Andrew Luck — yes, former NFL superstar QB Andrew Luck, who quit the sport at age 30, in his prime, and who now leads one of the industry's most interesting management experiments. I reached out to the story's reporter, my colleague Zak Keefer, to ask:
What makes Luck such an interesting character in college football this season?
Keefer: What was so fascinating to me, having covered so much of his career, was that he came back to football at all. When he retired in 2019, he was broken — not just physically but emotionally. He needed time to grieve, and the cool part was that the game that had beaten the living hell out of him slowly began to pull him back in. So this isn't just a job for Andrew Luck — it feels like a reconciliation.
(Final word to Dan: 'General manager' is the most intriguing role in college sports right now. And Andrew Luck, who evidently has true NFL-style management power, is the most intriguing general manager.)
Branding: 'Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh-Reillyyyyy!'
After 11 years of Xfinity as the title sponsor, NASCAR's second-tier circuit gets a new lead brand, O'Reilly Auto Parts.
Endorsement: Jack Draper x Vuori
As noted by MoneyCall pal Daniel-Yaw Miller in his latest SportsVerse newsletter, fashion brands are going all-out to partner with big tennis personalities ahead of the U.S. Open and beyond. This reminds me of Frances Tiafoe's deal with Lululemon.
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What to Watch: 'America's Team'
'There is a lot of insight into the Cowboys of that (1990s) era. Controversies aren't skipped. It's impossible to tell the full story without delving into the drama.' — Jason Jones, from his review of the new Netflix docuseries.
Best of the 21st Century: Play-by-play announcers!
Freshly published this morning, Richard Deitsch picked the most impactful sports TV play-by-play announcers of the 21st century. It's a fun list! (Read it, and then take the quick poll to pick your own favorites!)
Data Point: $12,107
What someone paid for a Jay Cutler football card. (What?! Why?!)
Related: A phenomenal analysis of the state of the card industry coming out of July, the biggest month of card sales ever.
Name to Know: Allison Howard
The new president of Cleveland's WNBA expansion team comes from one of the best-run franchises in U.S. sports, the K.C. Current. (Throwback: our Q&A last month with Nic Barlage, CEO of the Cleveland team's parent company.)
Beat Dan in Connections: Sports Edition
Puzzle #331
Time: 00:33
Tricky!
Try the game here.
Great business-adjacent reads for your downtime or commute:
Twenty-five must-see road-trips in college sports, from my colleague Stewart Mandel.
(I'm going to quibble with an omission related to my and Mandel's alma mater: Northwestern's pop-up lakeside football stadium is only around through the end of October and is as unusual a big-time college football venue as you will ever experience.)
Two more:
(1) Why did the Golden State Warriors owner's kid want to leave the 'comfortable' life in an NBA front office? Meet Kent Lacob.
(2) In case you missed any of our series on stalking of sports figures, please check out these takeaways on the toll it exacts on its victims.
Back next Wednesday! Speaking of apps, don't forget to download The Athletic's app, then follow 'Sports Business.' And, as usual, please forward this to a couple friends or colleagues with your recommendation to subscribe!
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