A group of market experts feels that Disney-owned cable sports network ESPN would be a perfect fit for Apple TV.
Wedbush Securities analyst Daniel Ives, for one, predicts that it is a real possibility that Apple TV will step up to take the financially flailing cable network off Disney’s hands, according to Deadline.
Ives, who delivered his suggestion in a client research note on Wednesday, says that Apple TV has found added value for customers by adding live sports broadcasts to its service. And ESPN would be a natural progression to enhance its programming.
“The massive appetite for live sports content remains the laser focus for Cupertino now to boost its streaming future and further tap into its massive installed base of 2 billion iOS devices worldwide,” Ives wrote in his message to clients. “We believe the answer and the shoe that fits for Apple is the golden ESPN assets which potentially may be on the table in one form or another as [Disney CEO Bob] Iger and the Board strategically and carefully look at Disney’s core assets over the coming months.”
Bob Iger attends a basketball game between the Los Angeles Clippers and the Phoenix Suns at Crypto.com Arena on April 20, 2023, in Los Angeles, California. (Allen Berezovsky/Getty Images)
Apple has never divulged its actual subscriber numbers, but Ives estimated that Apple TV has about 50 million subscribers. He arrived at that by looking at Apple’s services which reportedly boast one billion paid subscriptions for all its services, including iCloud, Apple Music, Apple TV+, and others. Subscription sales have risen eight percent over last year, bringing $21.2 billion into Apple’s coffers.
But buying ESPN outright would be a steep price tag. It would cost around $50 billion for Apple to take the network lock, stock, and barrel.
ESPN College Gameday staff Desmond Howard, Rece Davis, Lee Corso, and Kirk Herbstreit, along with celebrity guest picker former Indy Car and NASCAR driver Danica Patrick pick winners before a college football game between the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the Wisconsin Badgers on September 25th, 2021 at Soldier Field in Chicago, IL. (Dan Sanger/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Disney has been meeting with several outside companies interested in buying into ESPN after the Mouse House announced in July that it was contemplating taking on partners for an equity stake in the sports cabler.
Moving toward streaming with Apple TV may save ESPN from slowly dwindling to nothing. Cable subscribers have just hit another low and dropped below 50 percent of total TV usage for the first time since cable first started. And that number will continue to fall as more Americans cut the cord and go to 100 percent streaming.
Still, there has been no confirmation from either Apple TV or Disney that the two are in discussions.
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