STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
An agreement between ESPN and the NFL gives the National Football League a partial stake in the same network that covers it. So what does that mean for fans and for ESPN's coverage? Isabella Simonetti is a media reporter for The Wall Street Journal and is on the line. Good morning.
ISABELLA SIMONETTI: Good morning. Thanks for having me.
INSKEEP: Glad you're with us. How does this transaction work?
SIMONETTI: Yeah. So essentially, the National Football League has struck a deal with Disney's ESPN in which it's going to take a 10% stake in ESPN in return for control over key media assets, including the NFL Network.
INSKEEP: Control over key media assets. What does that mean? Who gets to control what there?
SIMONETTI: Yeah. So it's somewhat complicated, how the deal actually works. But essentially, one key part of it is that ESPN's new streaming service, which is set to launch this fall, will be able to fold in many of the NFL's most valuable media assets and give a more robust slate of NFL content to people who subscribe to that service.
INSKEEP: OK. So this is part of a continuing series of mergers and transactions reflecting television as the entire business model changes. I am curious, though, what it means for the independence of ESPN's reporting. They're covering sports, but they're reporting on it. Sometimes there are controversial issues. Sometimes ESPN's independence, particularly from the NFL, has been questioned. Can they be independent when they're partly owned by the people they're covering?
SIMONETTI: Yeah, so I - this is an age-old question. And I would bear in mind that Disney and ESPN already have a media rights agreement with the NFL, where they're paying the NFL in exchange for being able to air certain games. So this is really a new type of deal that Disney is engaging in with the NFL in which Disney is literally - the NFL is literally going to own a stake in ESPN. So I think that naturally will raise some eyebrows about how ESPN is going to continue to cover the biggest, most valuable professional sports league, particularly when it's one of its owners.
INSKEEP: How do they answer that criticism? Do they say, listen, we're independent anyway? Do they say, what are you talking about? We don't try to be independent. What is their response?
SIMONETTI: Yeah. So I spoke with Bob Iger yesterday, Disney's chief executive. And he maintained that, quote, "nothing in this deal in any way changes ESPN's approach when it comes to journalism."
INSKEEP: What does this mean for the average fan? Will we just see the same game that we were always watching, or will we notice a difference?
SIMONETTI: Yeah. So obviously, sports rights continue to be fragmented. So if you're an NFL fan, you're likely going to need to tune into many different places in order to watch all of your favorite teams' games. But I think it means that ESPN, if you're a subscriber, will have a more robust slate of NFL content than it did before. That's essentially what it means if you're a fan.
INSKEEP: And this, for ESPN, means continued financial strength, even though cable networks generally have been struggling?
SIMONETTI: For ESPN, they get more of the most valuable sports league's content. And in exchange, the NFL is getting a significant stake in the - one of the biggest sports media empires that exists. And neither Disney nor the NFL have disclosed the value of the ESPN stake, but analysts estimated ESPN's valuation is around $25 billion to...
INSKEEP: Wow.
SIMONETTI: ...$30 billion.
INSKEEP: Wow. Isabella Simonetti of The Wall Street Journal, thanks for your insights.
SIMONETTI: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
