ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro continues to make the rounds, addressing a number of topics in a podcast with Bryan Curtis of The Ringer.
In an interview on The Ringer podcast “The Press Box” conducted Monday, Pitaro said ESPN would have interest in incorporating third-party content into its new direct-to-subscriber app, a move that would go beyond the bundling options that have already been announced with Fox One and NFL+.
“Theoretically, could we foresee a scenario where you can subscribe to a third-party service in the purchase flow, and then have that third-party content included within the ESPN app? The answer is yes,” Pitaro said. “We don’t have anything to announce or anything done, as I sit here today, but that is certainly something that we are interested in.”
The Venu app, which was announced last year and abandoned after regulatory scrutiny in January, would have included ESPN, Fox Sports and Warner Bros. Discovery content as part of the same app. The ESPN-Fox One bundle will offer both apps as part of a discounted package, but they will remain standalone services.
As Pitaro noted, Disney already owns a streaming service that includes third-party content — Hulu + Live TV — though that is of course a digital version of the cable bundle, rather than a sport-specific, cost-saving service.
He also addressed the company’s acquisition of NFL Media platforms, which notably did not include digital rights to NFL RedZone. The league, he said, “made it clear to us that they were very focused on maintaining their digital rights outside of fantasy.” While the NFL will maintain digital rights to the whiparound program, ESPN has acquired its contracts with MVPD and vMVPD services.
Beyond the NFL, Pitaro said ESPN is having “a very healthy dialogue” with Major League Baseball and confirmed that conversations are ongoing. “The deal that we had didn’t make sense for us,” Pitaro said, referring to the $550 million/year contract the network opted out of in February, but “we love the game of baseball and wanted to figure something out with them.” He added that ESPN has expressed to MLB its interest in local rights and said the network “can be part of the solution” to the decline of RSNs.
With the interview being conducted Monday, Curtis also was able to get Pitaro on the record about the company’s loss of UFC rights to Paramount. “We are incredibly proud of how we have been able to elevate the sport, make it more mainstream. … I think if Dana White were sitting here right now, he would echo that.” Pitaro added that ESPN will continue to cover UFC: “Our fans have grown accustomed to UFC content across ESPN, and I expect that will continue.”
As for the company’s new deal with the other TKO property, WWE, Pitaro said the acquisition of WWE’s premium live events will help the ESPN streaming service avoid churn during slower months of the year. “When we first started to look at these premium level events, we immediately thought of the calendar and the fact that these events could help us plug some holes, some gaps that we might have in our schedule and thereby minimize churn. … I would expect that if I were to call [WWE president] Nick Khan and say, ‘hey, can you work with me? We have a particular gap here in our schedule.’ I expect he will.”
On the talent side, Pitaro replied “absolutely” when asked if ESPN has gotten its desired value out of “The Pat McAfee Show,” adding that the company is “very, very pleased with it.” He all-but-confirmed that the network has reached an extension with NBA host Malika Andrews, saying that she will remain busy next season even with ESPN’s addition of the TNT-produced “Inside the NBA” as its main NBA studio show. And he said that despite behind-the-scenes changes, the current “Monday Night Football” team of Joe Buck, Troy Aikman and Lisa Salters will remain in place for ESPN’s first Super Bowl in 2027.
Finally, Pitaro reiterated points he made in interviews last week, saying that ESPN’s NFL deal will not result in any changes to the network’s journalistic approach or result in any preferential treatment in upcoming rights talks with the league.
