ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro Talks Streaming Service, NFL Deal

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00:00The chairman of ESPN, Jimmy Pataro. Jimmy, thank you so much for joining us.

00:04Obviously, you just launched your new direct-to-consumer streaming platform,

00:08and part of that also includes your deal with the NFL, where they are taking an equity stake

00:13in your company. Tell us a little bit about the future of streaming and how the NFL sort of plays

00:17a role in all of that. You got it. First off, thanks for having me. It's great to be here today.

00:22Two things happened a few weeks ago. First off, we launched our direct-to-consumer service.

00:27For the first time, our 12 networks and over 47,000 live events will be available

00:32direct-to-consumer. Part two, we significantly enhanced the ESPN app with new features

00:38and functionality, and we're thrilled with how fans are receiving and engaging with the product.

00:45And then, yes, a little bit before a few days, maybe a week or so before we launched direct-to-consumer,

00:53we announced several deals with the NFL, first of which was them taking an equity stake, as you

01:00mentioned, in ESPN. That deal still needs to close, but once it does, we will then acquire the NFL

01:08network, and our plan is to include NFL network and ESPN direct-to-consumer, the base tier.

01:13We will also be acquiring the Red Zone brand and linear rights to Red Zone, and we will also be

01:20acquiring their fantasy business, and we will become the official fantasy game of the NFL.

01:25There were a couple of other components, a couple of other deals, including us extending, renewing

01:33our rights to the NFL draft. A big part of our DNA at ESPN is actually the NFL draft. We helped create

01:40it with them decades ago, and so we're super excited to be able to extend that partnership.

01:45And I know a lot of people have been curious about how this partnership is going to look with the NFL.

01:49As you mentioned, still needing to close, so I'm curious when it will close, but also

01:53how this makes sense, not only with the NFL, but maybe future leagues that you guys can partner with

01:57as well. Don't know about timing. That's a question for the lawyers. I'm a retired lawyer,

02:02so I'll leave that to the smarter people. Don't know about timing in terms of closing. In terms of

02:07potential other opportunities, I would say, look, this was a very unique and highly complex deal.

02:14We had been speaking about this, working on it for several years with the league. That said,

02:23if a deal, if there's an opportunity to partner or expand a partnership with another league,

02:29and we think it makes business sense for ESPN, and we think it makes sense for the sports fan,

02:36we're of course going to listen and pursue it.

02:38Obviously, the NBA season's about a month away. A lot of us are very excited for what inside the

02:44NBA will look like on ESPN, given the fact that you guys are going to be licensing that show.

02:49Can you give us any sort of insight? Will it change? Is it going to look any different from

02:53how we saw it on TNT? Charles Barkley just recently said he doesn't even know what it's going to look

02:58like. Well, first off, let me say that I'm a huge fan, as I think everyone at this conference is,

03:04of the show. And so we're thrilled to be able to keep the show going on ESPN and ABC.

03:13Second, probably even more important, is the fact that we are not going to change the show at all.

03:20Turner will actually continue to produce it out of their Atlanta studios, and we're incredibly

03:25excited about that. In terms of the schedule and the programming, Burke Magnus, our head of

03:30our presenter content, we'll be speaking about that in a lot of detail as we get closer to the start

03:35of the season. But I think it's helpful to look at it as the inside the NBA show really appearing

03:44around our key tentpole events during the regular season and then, of course, during the postseason.

03:52So think playoffs, conference finals, NBA finals. We just got our deal done with the NBA, and as a

04:00part of that, we were able to... It's an 11-year deal. We will have a conference final for 10 of

04:07the 11 years, and we will have the exclusive rights to the NBA finals for all 11 years. So

04:14for the first time ever inside the NBA, we'll be on during the NBA finals. So we're excited about that,

04:21and I don't want to speak for those guys, but I think they're excited about that as well.

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