Disney, Nexstar, held preliminary talks about sale of ABC

DENVER, CO - JUNE 18: Colorado Avalanche defenseman Josh Manson (42) celebrates after a first period goal during the Stanley Cup Finals game 2 between the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Colorado Avalanche at Ball Arena in Denver, Colorado on June 18, 2022. (Photo by Dustin Bradford/Icon Sportswire)

The smoke surrounding a potential sale of ABC by Disney continues to rise.

Bloomberg reported Thursday that Disney has held preliminary talks with both Nexstar and media magnate Byron Allen about a potential sale of ABC and Disney’s owned-and-operated ABC affiliates. Nexstar, which purchased broadcast “netlet” The CW less than a year ago, is the nation’s largest station owner.

In response to the Bloomberg story, Disney said that it has made “no decision” about selling ABC or its other linear channels, but is “open to considering a variety of strategic options for our linear businesses.”

Disney CEO Bob Iger has been open about the company’s willingness to part ways with its linear channels, ESPN being a noted exception. In the event that Disney would sell ABC and keep ESPN, it is not clear how ESPN’s existing rights deals would be affected. ESPN’s NFL deal includes two Super Bowl games simulcast on both ESPN and ABC. Its NBA deal, which expires in two years, includes the NBA Finals on ABC every year.

There is not much recent precedent for what happens to sports rights when corporate siblings are separated. Disney’s 2018 acquisition of 21st Century Fox cable networks FX and FXX had little impact on sports coverage as most of Fox Sports’ cable programs aired on FS1 at the time of the sale.

When then-News Corporation sold Fox Family to Disney in 2001, the rebranded ABC Family inherited the network’s Major League Baseball rights and aired ESPN-produced games the following October.

Nexstar has been aggressive in trying to enter the live sports space, acquiring rights to LIV Golf, ACC football and — starting in 2025 — the NASCAR Xfinity Series. Acquiring ABC, which has a storied history of sports coverage wholly independent from both ESPN and Disney, would accelerate the company’s sports ambitions whether or not it acquired the sports properties ABC currently shares with ESPN.

Allen purchased The Weather Channel in 2018 and his Allen Media Group owns 36 television stations in 21 markets.

(News from Bloomberg 9.14)

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Jon Lewis

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Comments 6

Samuel says:

3 years ago

This would be the best news I’ve seen in years. Because I’ve always held out that little hope that we’d see ABC Sports back again. And ESPN has absolutely destroyed everything they’ve had rights to since August 2006. Seeing the return of ABC Sports would put an end (hopefully) to the awful, bland productions on ESPN. And you could kind of see this coming with Nexstar, seeing how aggressive they’ve been in getting LIV, ACC football and NASCAR rights. Now what happens with all the rights ESPN/ABC just signed moving forward is anyone’s guess. Of course the most important event in this whole thing looming is the 2027 Super Bowl. Where does that end up if this sale happens? ESPN exclusive? Don’t think the NFL would be happy with that.
Nate Johnson says:

3 years ago

Maybe a little late on this but considering how the probability and odds of Disney moving on from ABC has increased, it’s important to question what fall out could this bring since both ESPN and ABC both grew one another brand. Those two it seemed were dating for a long time before they finally got Married in September of 2006. Now that a divorce is likely to come, I’ll comment on how LIVE Sports should fall out if Disney sells off ABC.

NFL- For one, I believe that ABC has the rights to the playoff games and two Super Bowls. There’s no way that the NFL would not have that drafted in the contract deal. Monday Night Football is different which is where I simply don’t see ESPN giving up those rights. Part of me believes that they could sell the rights to the new ABC but be able to still simulcast the coverage, but I have a hard time believing they will want to relinquish the Monday Night Football rights during the Regular Season. This situation could seriously become messy just as many divorce settlements are in this country.

SEC- As far as the SEC goes, the new ABC should do everything they can to get a top pick SEC Match-up. I believe the SEC would want to be on a linear network during the Fall and absolutely would figure a way for that to be possible. I’m not completely sure if the new ABC would be able to get the SEC Championship game annually since ESPN would want to hold onto that (along with Major Rival matchups such as Texas/Oklahoma, Florida/Georgia, and Alabama/Auburn), but the new ABC still getting the top SEC match-up weekly would be a huge success.

Rest of College Football- The main question would be could the new ABC get ACC and Big 12 matchups at a bargain (I believe ESPN would want to hold onto both conferences’ best matchups). It’s difficult to imagine the new ABC getting the ACC championship since their media deal ends in the later part of the 2030s. The Big 12 has separated their Championship game package from the Regular season in the past. I’m not sure without researching if that’s the case now, but if it is then the new ABC should want to acquire those rights when available to at least have a Conference Championship game in their portfolio. CFP? Why not. However, I have a hard time the new ABC would have any leverage since ESPN will be in discussions on the rights after the next couple of seasons with FOX possibly preparing to make their proposed offer as well. With that said though, the CFP should let ESPN know their intention on having CFP games on ABC or else FOX and maybe NBC would take show all of the CFP games which would make ESPN go insane.

NHL- This is very interesting. In the even years they have their Stanley Cup Final on ABC. So I’m curious if that is written in contract which could carry over if ABC is sold off from Disney. If it is not written in contract, then NHL fans better get used to seeing the Stanley Cup Final on cable, because I don’t see a point in ESPN giving that right up. However, the new ABC should still want to broadcast NHL games as security insurance if the NBA no longer wants to associate with either ESPN or ABC in a couple of years.

NBA- I believe this news will mean that the NBA will maintain its partnership with TNT and possibly move towards a deal with NBC. I’m not quite sure why the NBA would want to continue partnering with ESPN/ABC. The relationship is not the same as it once was in 2003, 2013, or even as recent as 2020. This news of Disney having conversations about selling ABC would be the last straw on wanting to extend a media deal with ESPN/ABC.

MLB- Believe it or not, this league will have media deals negotiations before we know it. MLB on the new ABC would be absolutely wonderful. It’s been a long time coming and with the new ABC no longer dealing with ESPN they can now broadcast MLB Postseason and the World Series something ESPN didn’t want to do because of their heavy commitment to football. I would support this 100%. Nothing is wrong with MLB on FOX in my personal opinion, I just believe that the MLB ought to figure a way for their national programming to be more towards the ESPN/ABC land than the FOX/TBS land. I’ll say it again, it’s been a long time coming.

Bottomline, it looks like the new ABC will have its work cut out for them. This isn’t something new as they were in similar situation prior to the mid-2000s which prompted ESPN to take over their sports coverage. Missing out on Hulu and ESPN+ would be tough for ABC. Facing fewer major sporting programs would be difficult for them to swallow and also maintain pace with those other Big 3 as well as ESPN and Turner. The new ABC would be refreshing to those that remembers something from the ABC Sports era, but I’m not sure how those that don’t recall seeing Texas defeat USC in all-time College Football classic, Steelers defeating the Seahawks in a Super Bowl, and Dwyane Wade winning his first of 3 NBA Finals all in the same calendar year of 2006 all occurring before the month of July that year could be somewhat supportive on this sell to possibly come to fruition. We shall see. There’s hope. There’s also minimal optimistic.
dx says:

3 years ago

Feels like if this happens, there are two possible outcomes:

1. The buyer enters into a contract with Disney to purchase and air ESPN-produced programs for essentially the duration of ESPN’s current rights deals.

2. Disney cuts a deal with FOX instead because FOX:
a) buys some of its programming from Disney (911 franchise, The Simpsons)
b) has no DTC platform like CBS and NBC do and isn’t planning to create one (FOX shows stream on Hulu)
c) has emphasized live sports on broadcast as part of its brand post-selling all the entertainment assets to Disney
esl says:

3 years ago

This is interesting. I do think bringing back ABC sports back would be a great thing. If you look at the history of sports television, there is no more important entity than ABC sports. With Roone Arledge leading the way, ABC practically created sports television as we know it. From the production to the announcers, they were the first. And, no other network could match the Hall of Fame announcers ABC had. Howard Cosell on MNF with Frank Gifford and Dandy Don Meredith, Jim McKay hosting the Olympics, the best college football announcer of all time Keith Jackson, and finally, the last link to ABC sports, Al Michaels who did it all for ABC. No network could ever match that talent.
Hello Larry says:

3 years ago

Honestly, I think Disney sells off ESPN as well, I can’t see Disney keeping ESPN seeing how much its worth with all of those sports deals. I just think that Disney might wait until a lot of their contracts expire before selling it. It sounds like ABC will be done within the next 2-4 years. The only thing to figure out here is how this affects the Super Bowl since it’s likely the NFL isn’t going to want their biggest game exclusively shown on cable in February 2027 and again in 2031. Maybe a handshake agreement is made where ABC is still used as a simulcastor if ABC is sold by that point which is looking likely.

Either way, a lot of us are going to love to see ABC getting their sports division back for the first time since 2005 when ESPN tookover in 2006. If Nexstar are their new owners then we’re going to see them getting aggressive in TV rights. It’s possible, Nexstar may get in on these NBA rights to hold them for the future on ABC or on The CW. MLB and NHL rights will be up again by the end of the decade, so things will really open up and Olympic rights should be available by that point too, although NBC will do everything in their power to keep them. College Football rights will always be available although the bigger deals are locked in for the rest of the decade. Nexstar might try to get the entire ACC package, but their network is owned by Disney.

Byron Allen’s company Entertainment Studios is an interesting potential partner as I know his company bought The Weather Channel a few years back. I would love to see him get ABC as I would wonder how aggressive his company would be when it comes to sporting rights.

It’s gonna get real interesting the more these rumors heat up and we get close to the actual sale of ABC and everything that comes out of it as ABC will finally become a real broadcast network again since 1995 and not just an OTA airtime asset for Disney.
Mn_ace says:

3 years ago

Well whoever buys ABC has a chance to resurrect what Disney and ESPN killed in bringing back ABC SPORTS if they can keep some sports rights but I don’t see how that happens seeing that ESPN basically pays for everything and only buys the time on ABC