Soon-to-be-former Disney CEO Bob Iger: “Nothing in this deal in any way changes the ESPN approach when it comes to journalism.” Sadly true!
With this stroke 345 Park (NFL headquarters) has contractual business partnerships with Bueno Vista (Disney headquarters, representing ABC, ESPN and Hulu), Paramount (CBS and Paramount Plus), Amazon, Netflix, Alphabet (YouTube), X (Twitter), Fox and the New York Times. There is hardly any major communications enterprise remaining that is not in bed with NFL subsidies and antitrust exemptions.
Over the summer Roger Goodell appeared on SportsCenter and spoke warmly to Hannah Storm about the NFL’s love of ESPN. That was rich, considering NFL Network was created for the purpose of destroying ESPN. Now the two have kissed and made up. There are billions to be made.