ESPN President John Skipper this morning following the company’s annual Upfront in N.Y. defended the sports media giant as it continues to face mounting Wall Street scrutiny. The stock of parent company Walt Disney Co. has ebbed in recent months, in part due to investor concerns over ESPN subscriber losses, and Disney last week announced second-quarter financial results that missed analyst earnings targets. “The Walt Disney Co. released their 11th straight quarter of double-digit [growth in] earnings [per share]. And I’m happy to be in the crosshairs of the fact that media networks contributed mightily to that,” Skipper said. “We’re quite encouraged by many of the conversations we’re having with new distributors, over-the-top distributors and new packages. We have, we think, real traction with Sony and Sling and other distributors. Look, we have said repeatedly that we like our hand. You saw it today. We think we still have a little swagger. We think we will continue to perform.” The Upfront itself included announcements of several new audience measures, including out-of-home viewing that has long confounded programmers and measurement agencies, as well as further incorporation of digital consumption including WatchESPN. The new measures in some cases are expected to provide double-digit percentage bumps in audience counts. “We are very excited about how for the first time we’re going to be able to measure our whole audience,” Skipper said. “You’re going to see some very dramatic numbers for out-of-home viewing. They’re going to be part of our sales estimates immediately and part of the Nielsen numbers starting in ’17. We think that is a significant opportunity.”
NO DRAIN IN TALENT: Skipper shot back against recent accusations of ESPN facing a talent drain following the departures of several high-profile analysts and commentators over the past year, including Bill Simmons, Skip Bayless and Mike Tirico. “I did not see any lack of talent on our stage today,” he said. “We are very happy with the people who work for us. And you also get a chance to see we are highly focused on new voices, diverse voices and changing the way we look to reflect the way that fans look now. We are very happy with our complement of talent.” He also dismissed narrative around ESPN’s flagship “SportsCenter” as a property past its prime giving declining ratings over the past year. “Any narrative that ’SportsCenter’ does not remain central to a sports fan’s experience is not accurate. But that does have to include all platforms and all media. ... 'SportsCenter' as a standalone network would be the sixth largest cable network among men aged 18-34. And two of the ones ahead of it would be ESPN 1 and 2.” Skipper did acknowledge a need to continue to differentiate “SportsCenter” in different day parts and give anchors more room to show their personalities.
TECH-NICAL DIFFICULTIES: Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Iger attended the Upfront this morning. And like Iger with analysts last week, Skipper declined to comment on recent press reports that the company intends to invest in MLBAM’s BAM Tech unit. Skipper championed this morning’s debut of The Undefeated and said the site will continue to be supported by ESPN “as long as the content is good. And I’m highly confident that is as permanent a state as you can have in the media business.”
