ESPN President Jimmy Pitaro said the net is "trying to attract a younger audience on-air," while also "trying to create products, like ESPN+, that speak directly to that younger generation and we feel we're on to something with ESPN+." Pitaro during an appearance on Bloomberg TV said the net feels "really, really good" about ESPN+ having more than 2 million subscribers, but at the same time he said, "This really is the first inning for us, and every deal that we're negotiating right now we are looking at how do we acquire rights, not just for the linear package, but for ESPN+." Pitaro: "We want to provide as many access points to our content as possible. We have this traditional TV business which is still in the vast majority of U.S. households and still offers great value to the customer. At the same time, we're putting a lot of resources and a lot of investment into our direct to consumer business." He added in terms of the cost of sports rights, "there's a lot more competition today than there has been in the past." Pitaro said new players trying to secure live sports rights are "well-funded and they are being quite aggressive in the space, but that being said, we've always had competition." However, he said ESPN has the "best rights acquisition team in the industry," and the net is "confident in terms of the value that we present to our partners." Pitaro: "Live sports will continue to be valuable and we are very interested ... in continuing to acquire live rights, not just for our traditional platform like television, but also for our direct to consumer business" ("Bloomberg Daybreak: Americas," Bloomberg TV, 5/23).
CHANGING STRIPES: In N.Y., Andrew Marchand writes it is "better business" for ESPN and Pitaro to "not be perceived as favoring one party or the other." As a result, Pitaro has "shut down ESPN personalities' political activity on social media." What he is doing with that is "eliminating any gas on the Twitter and the blogosphere fire." While Keith Olbermann can still host "SportsCenter," his "social media feed has been focused on rescuing dogs instead of criticizing" President Trump. Under Pitaro, it "seems less likely ESPN would make a statement," as the net did in '15 to give Caitlyn Jenner the Arthur Ashe Award at the ESPYs (N.Y. POST, 5/24).
