As controversy swirls around its parent company, ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro sidestepped when asked if the company’s pending NFL Media deal is impacting Disney’s decision to suspend an ABC host.
Appearing at the Axios “Media Trends Live” event Thursday, ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro skirted a question about whether the company’s non-binding agreement to acquire NFL Media assets impacted Disney’s Wednesday decision to suspend late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel. After being asked about that prospect by interviewer Sara Fischer, Pitaro said only that “we’re going through the regulatory process right now, which as we all know is customary for transactions of this nature. We are optimistic because this is a pro-consumer and pro-fan offering.”
Disney will need regulatory approval in order to complete its acquisition of NFL Network, linear distribution rights to NFL RedZone, and additional properties. The company’s decision to suspend Kimmel came after the FCC chairman on Wednesday threatened to target ABC and affiliated stations if the comedian was not punished for comments he made on his show Monday night. Nexstar, which also is seeing FCC approval for an acquisition, announced later in the day that it would pull Kimmel’s show from its stations (Nexstar said later that the decision was made unilaterally and without FCC influence).
During the regulatory process for the Paramount-Skydance deal earlier this year, Paramount agreed to settle a questionable presidential lawsuit and announced it would cancel its late night show hosted by Stephen Colbert.
Pitaro was also asked about recent ESPN rights negotiations. On MLB, he said the sides have made “very good progress over the past couple of months” and he is “very hopeful” that they will “get something done.” MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said this week that MLB has agreements in principle with ESPN, NBCUniversal and Netflix for rights deals that would in one form or another replace ESPN’s expiring deal.
On ESPN’s loss of UFC rights, he was conciliatory, crediting TKO for doing a “fantastic job.” Pitaro: “It’s great for UFC to have broadcast exposure. … We can’t have everything; we have to make tough decisions, but more power to TKO in terms of getting that done.”
He also said ESPN would be open to being part of a potential sports-focused bundle on YouTube TV (“We are certainly open to a sports package, or a genre-specific sports offering, on the right business terms”) and reiterated once again that ESPN is open to additional equity stake deals. The NFL would take an equity stake in ESPN as part of its pending NFL Media deal, and ESPN has existing equity stakes in the Premier Lacrosse League and NBA China.
