{"id":1089,"date":"2026-05-06T13:58:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T13:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/2026\/05\/06\/will-disney-split-espn-and-abc-from-its-streaming-businesses-its-cfo-says-dont-bet-on-it\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T13:58:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T13:58:00","slug":"will-disney-split-espn-and-abc-from-its-streaming-businesses-its-cfo-says-dont-bet-on-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/2026\/05\/06\/will-disney-split-espn-and-abc-from-its-streaming-businesses-its-cfo-says-dont-bet-on-it\/","title":{"rendered":"\u30c7\u30a3\u30ba\u30cb\u30fc\u306fESPN\u3068ABC\u3092\u30b9\u30c8\u30ea\u30fc\u30df\u30f3\u30b0\u4e8b\u696d\u304b\u3089\u5206\u96e2\u3059\u308b\u306e\u304b\uff1f\u6700\u9ad8\u8ca1\u52d9\u8cac\u4efb\u8005\u306f\u300c\u8ced\u3051\u308b\u306a\u300d\u3068\u8ff0\u3079\u3066\u3044\u308b\u3002"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\tAcross the entertainment business, a clear trend has emerged: Linear TV and streaming need to be separated apart, and in some cases even spun out, in order to lean into the future. <\/p>\n

\tWarner Bros. Discovery was in the process of splitting itself in two companies before Paramount swooped in to buy the whole thing, but Paramount runs its TV and streaming assets from within two different siloes itself. NBCUniversal spun out most of its linear business into Versant, keeping only a couple of brands (NBC and Bravo) for itself.<\/p>\n

\tDon\u2019t expect Disney<\/a> to follow suit, at least not anytime soon.<\/p>\n

\tDuring the company\u2019s fiscal Q2 earnings call, Disney CFO Hugh Johnston explained the company\u2019s thinking on linear vs. streaming, and how it views them all as being connected.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cThese networks are better thought of as brands with studios that produce content like The Bear <\/em>or Shogun<\/em>, and we monetize that content across multiple distribution platforms,\u201d Johnston said of Disney\u2019s entertainment linear brands like FX and Disney Channel. \u201cSeparating those monetization platforms into discrete businesses is highly complex, and in our view, unlikely to create incremental value for shareholders, especially given where networks are valued in today\u2019s marketplace.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cSecond, we\u2019re managing a monetization transition of these brands, and we are actually far down that migration path,\u201d he continued. \u201cWe\u2019re generating more revenue at Disney Entertainment in streaming than in linear, more than double, if we look at it, in this most recent quarter. So the linear earnings base is becoming smaller and smaller every quarter within our P&L. Finally, yes, linear revenues are declining, but Disney Entertainment as a segment, is growing nicely \u2026 So with all the cord cutting pressure, Disney entertainment is actually one of the faster growing media businesses out there, and we\u2019re actually very, very proud of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tSports is a slightly different story, but once again Disney frames the tie-up of streaming and linear as being beneficial, particularly with other streaming platforms like Netflix and Prime Video leaning into sports themselves.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cWe view ABC<\/a> as strategically connected when we think about ESPN<\/a> and sports in general. Sports is admittedly a separate discussion in that it is much earlier in its monetization transition, having just launched [ESPN] Unlimited last year,\u201d Johnston said. \u201cHowever, when we look at the marketplace for streaming in our competitive set: Netflix, Prime Video, YouTube, Paramount+, all of them are increasing their position in live sports. <\/p>\n

\t\u201cSports rights are expensive and can be dilutive without scale, but we have scale in our most important market, the U.S., and the biggest sports media brand in the world, in ESPN,\u201d he continued. \u201cWe view sports as a key part of our programming strategy. ESPN as an important contributor to our distribution portfolio. For sure, we have to continue to work through the economic transition for ESPN, while also better leveraging it for our overall business.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tIt\u2019s a message that it meant to make it clear to the Street that the company has a strategy in place that includes both linear and streaming, and it is a strategy that seems differentiated when compared to many of its peers, though whether it pays off may depend on how ESPN makes that transition.<\/p>\n

\tShould Disney change its mind, it seems clear that it would be ESPN and ABC that hit the market, with brands like FX and Disney Channel staying in house.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cWhen it comes to capital allocation, we\u2019re always assessing and looking to maximize shareholder value of our portfolio,\u201d Johnston said. \u201cThat is our responsibility to shareholders, and we will continue to do that in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Across the entertainment business, a clear trend has emerged: Linear TV and streaming need to be separated apart, and in some cases even spun out, in order to lean into the future. Warner Bros. Discovery was in the process of splitting itself in two companies before Paramount swooped in to buy the whole thing, but Paramount runs its TV and streaming assets from within two different siloes itself. NBCUniversal spun out most of its linear business into Versant, keeping only a couple of brands (NBC and Bravo) for itself. Don\u2019t expect Disney to follow suit, at least not anytime soon. During the company\u2019s fiscal Q2 earnings call, Disney CFO Hugh […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1090,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[336,94,95,152,681,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-abc","category-business","category-business-news","category-disney","category-espn","category-hollywood"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}