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The NHL entered into a seven-year media rights deal with ESPN three years ago. The goal was to expand its reach and cultivate a wider audience.
However, recent reports indicate that ESPN's subscriber base has experienced a significant decline from 80 million to 45 million during this period. This is a significant loss of 35 million subscribers, which has prompted parent company Disney to seek a strategic partner for the network.
As the NHL's partnership with ESPN navigates these challenges, fans have taken to Twitter to voice their opinions on the state of the league's coverage:
"The ESPN coverage of hockey is abysmal. If it’s the only place a game is available, I just won’t watch it. They don’t understand hockey at all."
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Another fan, inspired by Apple's involvement in Major League Soccer (MLS), proposed a similar revitalization for the NHL:
"What Apple did for the MLS, they can do for the NHL."
One Twitter user expressed a yearning for the days when NBC held the reins, saying:
"NBC was a much better partner. NBC + TNT was the move."
As Disney seeks a strategic partner for ESPN, it's clear that the landscape of sports broadcasting is entering a new era. The challenges faced by ESPN are definitely attention-worthy and concerning.
More about the NHL-ESPN partnership and the plan moving forward
In its recent quarterly earnings call, Disney reported a slight decline in ESPN+ subscribers, marking the platform's first step back in growth since its inception over five years ago.
The number of subscribers decreased from 25.3 million to 25.2 million, accompanied by a drop in average monthly revenue per user from $5.64 to $5.45.
Disney remains optimistic about its direct-to-consumer business, which saw losses reduced by over half year-over-year, totaling $512 million. The company plans to implement price increases across most streaming services to boost revenue. But this could work against it.
Disney's CEO Bob Iger reaffirmed the intention to introduce a full direct-to-consumer version of ESPN, emphasizing that the transition is a matter of "when," not "if."
The overall revenue for the quarter grew by 4% to $22.3 billion, with operating income remaining stable at about $3.6 billion.
