Disney reportedly wants to team up with Apple to expand ESPN distribution

While Bob Iger has said that Disney doesn’t currently plan to spin ESPN off, the company is actively looking for “strategic partners” that could help with things like distribution and content. A new report from the New York Post this week says that Apple is one of many companies reportedly “on the radar.”

The report doesn’t offer many specifics about Apple’s interest in partnering with Disney in some form or fashion for ESPN. The report doesn’t make it clear whether Disney and Apple have broached the topic, or if Apple is just one of the companies Disney with which Disney would be interested in holding conversations.

Disney, however, is reportedly expecting a strategic partnership for ESPN “to come from the tech world.” Alongside Apple, other companies mentioned include Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Verizon, and T-Mobile.

The report continues:

What one of the big tech or mobile companies could offer is improved distribution, which historically is how dominance in media is won, dating back to the first days of the printing press.

That is why the idea of being pre-loaded onto iPhones or other devices to lead in the next frontier of distribution is appealing to ESPN. Apple is known to be very finickity in its negotiations, but if anyone could close a deal with Apple, it may be Iger, who was on their board.

9to5Mac’s Take

I’d treat this report with a healthy dose of skepticism for the time being. Any time Disney is looking to team up with a tech company, Apple is naturally one of the companies whose name gets tossed around quite a bit for headline-grabbing stories. After all, the’s a long-standing relationship and history between the two companies.

Of course Disney the idea of ESPN being pre-loaded onto every iPhone is “appealing to ESPN.” That would be appealing to any company. I would find it very appealing if Apple wanted to offer 9to5Mac pre-loaded on every iPhone. But that’s not how it works.

As we saw with NFL Sunday Ticket, however, Apple won’t bend to the wishes of other companies just to ink deals for sports content. One such holdup in any talks between Disney and Apple for ESPN would almost certainly be the company’s insistence that ESPN “remain available on cable television.”

While it’s certainly possible that ESPN and Apple end up inking some sort of deal in this arena, I wouldn’t hold my breath.

Still, Iger has made it clear that Disney wants to hold onto ESPN in some fashion and stay in the sports business.

“We’re going to be open-minded… not necessarily about spinning ESPN off but about looking for strategic partners that can either help us with distribution or content,” Iger said in an interview with Reuters earlier this month. “We want to stay in the sports business.”

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