New Bleacher Report CEO Howard Mittman said that the Turner-owned company has "no plans" to put its app behind a paywall, according to Sara Fischer of AXIOS. Mittman believes that consumers will "pay for live sporting events, but not necessarily sports journalism and analysis." He said, "I just don't believe that gating journalism is the best way for us to grow this business." The Bleacher Report app's revenue is "currently driven by ads," which bring in between $80-100M for the company. Users of the app must sign in through an "authentication service, like they would for a paid subscription," which helps the company "collect better first-party data and in turn, sell ads for a higher premium." The Bleacher Report app has 10 million users "signed up to get push alerts, which Mittman believes will be a critical service once real-time betting becomes widespread." Mittman said that Bleacher Report's acquisition by AT&T has been "smooth so far." He added, "Nothing has changed yet day-to-day, but the opportunity is massive." Mittman said that the company currently "brings in 4 to 5 times the amount of revenue that it did when it was acquired by Turner" in '12, which at the time was roughly $40M (AXIOS.com, 2/26).
