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Disney's Bob Iger Discusses ESPN, Sports-Rights Deals, The NFL's L.A. Return

Disney's Bob Iger "has become the most effective media CEO of his generation," but the challenges thrown at him "only have increased in recent months," according to a cover story by Matthew Belloni of the HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. Despite topping the Hollywood Reporter's list of the 100 most powerful people in entertainment, lower subscriber numbers at ESPN "have dragged down the company's share price lately." Iger recently sat for a Q&A, where he discussed ESPN, sports-rights deals and the NFL returning to L.A. Below are excerpts from the Q&A, some of which have been edited for brevity.

Q: Everyone asks, what is the fix for ESPN? You've said an improved digital offering is coming. Can you give a timeline for the ESPN digital rollout and what's going on there?
A: ESPN is not broken at all. ESPN, like a lot of other media entities, is facing challenges that they haven't faced before that are due to some very obvious circumstances, which is technology's effect on media. ... So what ESPN is exploring, they're creating more product that can be sold directly to the consumer, while at the same time doing what they can to make the product they sell to the distributors as vital as possible. 

Q: So there will be a stand-alone, live-sports, ESPN equivalent of HBO Now or CBS All Access?
A: I'm not going to say that. Is it inevitable that ESPN will have a more direct consumer product in the marketplace? Yes. ... I don't think it's safe to assume ESPN is going to take the product it has now and immediately take it over the top like HBO did to sell directly to consumers. ... ESPN plays a vital role in the health of the multichannel bundle, yes. That goes back to the old question of, to what extent are you a disruptor, to what extent do you allow yourself to get disrupted?

Q: Do you think there will be a correction in the value of sports-rights deals?
A: There isn't one in sight.

Q: Even if ESPN stops pumping up prices?
A:Well, ESPN was pumping them up and Fox and Comcast and Time Warner [too]. I last saw Twitter bought some (NFL) rights. Yahoo is bidding on rights. Who knows what Verizon will do. I don't see one in sight.

Q: What did you learn from your experience with the NFL and trying to bring the teams to L.A.?
A: I misread the chances going in. I actually thought the chances that we had -- myself and the partnership with the Raiders and the Chargers -- I thought the chances were better in the end than what I discovered they were. There was a very, very strong leaning going into that process to bring the Rams here, and I misread how strong that was (HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, 6/24 issue). 

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