S&P Report Sees Only ‘Mitigated’ Threat to Pay-TV From ESPN OTT Service

Disney's 2018 launch of its ESPN-branded livestreaming sports service likely won't “disrupt traditional pay TV distributors" for at least two-three years, Standard & Poor's said in a Friday report (1709100002). The ESPN over-the-top service won't replace any linear ESPN TV networks, but will “instead complement” them, it said. It’s possible Disney “could make the service more robust over time by adding more content, including from its TV networks,” and that could “accelerate cord-cutting trends,” it said. But any “threat to the pay TV ecosystem” would be “mitigated” because programming rights for the top-tier leagues are “spread among several broadcast and cable networks,” not concentrated at ESPN, it said. Sports enthusiasts who cut the cord in favor of buying an ESPN-branded OTT subscription “would likely need to purchase several sports-oriented OTT services to get the full sports experience,” it said. “Combined, these services could be cost prohibitive. But even if they aren't, the inefficiency and inconvenience of navigating various live-streaming services strengthen the case for content aggregation.”