ESPN Is “A Great Product”, Fox Corp. CFO Steve Tomsic Says, But It’s Only “A Sliver Of Sports” Given Fragmentation In U.S. Market

deadline.com:

Fox Corp. CFO Steven Tomsic said ESPN is “a great product” with strong potential in streaming, but the long-established brand is also just “a sliver of sports.” The exec was asked during an appearance at the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference about ESPN’s forthcoming direct-to-consumer launch and the implications for Fox. “We did a calculus of all the sort of distribution modes that could possibly emerge,” Tomsic said. “With sports in this country, they’re so fragmented.

So, for the true sports fan — look, ESPN’s a great service. And I’m sure when they launch the ESPN flagship [in streaming], I’m sure it will be a great product.

But it’s a sliver of sports. If you’re a sports fan and you want to watch the NFL in a given week, you go to Amazon for Thursdays, you go to us on Sunday, you’ve got CBS on Sunday, you’ve got NBC Sunday night and you’ve got ESPN on Monday.” Given the potency of the NFL, Tomsic continued, that level of fragmentation means that “no one sports service is going to satisfy” a fan.

There has recently been momentum for bundling in the streaming sector, not just vertically within companies but horizontally.