Neil Cybart 7/19/23 Neil Cybart 7/19/23

Parsing Iger’s ESPN Comments, ESPN’s Value, Thoughts on an Apple / ESPN Partnership

Hello everyone. We need one more update to close some loose ends regarding Disney, ESPN, and Apple. The update kicks off with an examination of Iger’s comments to CNBC regarding ESPN. We then turn to ESPN’s potential value and one difficulty found in valuing the subsidiary. The discussion then turns to Neil’s thoughts on a potential Apple/ESPN partnership, including what each company would bring to the table and what such a partnership would look like.

Let’s jump right in.

Parsing Iger’s ESPN Comments

As we discussed yesterday, Iger sounded relatively upbeat about ESPN in his interview with CNBC’s David Faber at Sun Valley. However, Iger admitted that ESPN needed work with the big one being a shift to direct to consumer.

Iger wouldn’t comment on timelines for such a shift other than to say he’s “much more certain about when.” Disney can’t prematurely announce such a move without upsetting its legacy business. There are also media rights deals to consider.

Here's a key exchange between Iger and Faber about ESPN:

“IGER: We’ve had a great business [with ESPN], and we want to stay in that business. That said we’re going to be open minded there too. Not necessarily about spinning ESPN off, but about looking for strategic partners that could either help us with distribution or content, but we want to stay in the sports business.

FABER: What would a strategic partner look like with distribution or content then for ESPN?

IGER: Well, I think you could again, I’m not gonna get too detailed about it, but we’re bullish about sports in general as a media property.”

Iger’s comment about someone helping ESPN with content stood out to me. The chatter has been focused on ESPN’s media rights for the NBA. It’s a critical deal for ESPN and the rights expire after the 2024 to 2025 season. Iger is likely

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Neil Cybart 7/13/23 Neil Cybart 7/13/23

Apple Cornering Market on Premium Headset Components, Disney's Troubles Grow, Apple’s Leverage Against Disney

Hello everyone. We kick things off with Neil’s thoughts on how competitors may struggle going up against Vision Pro from a hardware perspective due to Apple’s supply chain actions. The discussion then turns to Disney and the growing list of issues plaguing the company. The situation is creating a dynamic that be considered advantageous to Apple.

Apple Cornering Market on Premium Headset Components

As reports of severe Vision Pro supply constraints continue to be digested, there is a corollary found with the news that hasn’t received much attention.

Competitors face an uphill battle to even assemble the supply chain, components, and partners that would be needed to produce a headset that can go up against Vision Pro. Yesterday’s discussion touched upon this briefly when talking about Vision Pro’s supply issues likely not representing much of an opening for competitors in 2024.

There are already two examples that we can point to. (This likely won't be the exhaustive list):

OLEDoS (two displays are found in Vision Pro – one for each eye). Sony is reportedly the only company supplying the postage stamp-sized OLED on Silicon displays. The lack of production capacity is said to be a major factor for Vision Pro supply constraints.