Report: ESPN Talking About Streaming Packages

John Skipper

ESPN has been talking to Dish and other companies about launching new online streaming services that could include ESPN as part of their online TV bundle, revealed the sportscaster’s president John Skipper at Recode’s Code Media conference in Southern California Wednesday.

Variety reports Skipper didn’t want to comment on potential negotiations with Apple or Amazon, but said that ESPN has been talking to Dish and others “about creating other multi-stream products.”

However, ESPN isn’t looking to sell directly to consumers. “We do not believe that right now to be good business,” Skipper said. Instead, ESPN is betting on preserving the traditional pay TV bundle. “We have no intention of changing that proposition. That is excellent business for us,” he said.

Still, the realities of cord cutting haven’t been lost on Skipper. ESPN saw its subscribers decline last year, which contributed to a sell-off in media stock. “There have been some losses due to cord cutting,” Skipper acknowledged. ESPN has been hit doubly hard by this trend because some consumers have been trading down to smaller packages that don’t include ESPN, he said.

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