A new filing from Disney today indicates that profits from the company’s sports division have fallen 20% throughout the first nine months of 2023. Operating income for the brand’s sports arm dropped to $1.48 billion, and revenue fell to $13.2 billion, a decrease of 1.3%.
Disney has struggled with its sports programming as customers move away from traditional cable TV. The media giant has plans to offer an ESPN streaming service for those who have abandoned the brand’s cable channel.
This is the first time Disney has broken out numbers for ESPN and its sports division, which also includes Star-branded sports channels in India, eight domestic ESPN-branded channels, and ESPN on ABC.
According to the filing, the drop is primarily due to an operating loss at Star India sports. As a standalone business, ESPN’s operating income was $1.894 billion.
In July, Disney’s Chief Executive Bob Iger said the company hoped to find a strategic partner to assist with ESPN programming. While speaking to CNBC, Iger explained that the traditional TV business model no longer applies in the age of streaming and that it “is definitely broken and we have to call it like it is.”
ESPN laid off nearly 20 on-air talents a month before Iger’s comment to CNBC. Layoffs included Steve Young, Jalen Rose, Jeff Van Gundy, Suzy Kolber, and Max Kellerman, as well as LaPhonso Ellis and David Pollack.
Those who were laid off began receiving phone calls at 9 a.m. telling them they were “no longer contributing to ESPN.”
At the time, ESPN justified the layoffs in a statement and explained, “Given the current environment, ESPN has determined it necessary to identify some additional cost savings in the area of public-facing commentator salaries.”
