Thursday, April 13, 2006

Disney Unlikely to Offer Free Online Streams of ESPN Shows

(TV Week) – Walt Disney Co. President and CEO Robert Iger said Tuesday that the chances were slim that the media giant would ever stream ESPN shows on the Web for free. Offering its shows online for no charge could jeopardize ESPN's subscriber-fee revenue, Mr. Iger said during an investor call Tuesday. "We are paid handsomely by distributors, and the sub fees we get from that are guaranteed for a fairly long period of time," Mr. Iger said. "That's almost an annuity for us. It's an incredible source of revenue." Disney's ABC broadcast network said Monday that it would begin streaming episodes of four prime-time series for free on ABC.com in May as part of a two-month experiment to determine the viability of stream-ing ad-supported TV shows online. ABC has signed Ford Motor Co., Cingular, AT&T and others as adver-tisers.

He also went on to say "We keep that revenue in the second drawer of our bedside table".

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