ESPN+ ended 2024 by dropping 700,000 subscribers because the streaming service continues to wrestle to take care of development over an extended time frame. The loss in subscribers comes simply because the unique negotiating window with the UFC on a brand new broadcast rights deal began in January.
On Wednesday, Disney launched monetary info for the fourth quarter in 2024 with ESPN+ dropping three p.c of subscribers, which totaled out to 700,000. ESPN+ now boasts 24.9 million subscribers total. Disney’s total sports activities division, which is led by ESPN, noticed income keep flat quarter over quarter at $4.85 billion, however the phase working earnings reversed from a loss in the identical interval in 2023 to a achieve of $247 million in 2024.
It’s nonetheless a tricky development for ESPN+, particularly after the streaming service loved constant durations of development after first launching earlier than operating into more durable instances in recent times. Again in Might 2024, ESPN+ noticed a loss in total subscribers in three out of 4 quarters with the whole variety of subscribers sitting at 24.8 million.
ESPN+ presently sits slightly larger at 24.9 million, however that’s not an enormous quantity of development yr to yr, to not point out ESPN can be planning on launching a brand new streaming service by Fall 2025 that options the community’s flagship linear channels comparable to ESPN and ESPN2.
Whereas the UFC airs throughout all the ESPN household of networks, the vast majority of the promotion’s content material lives on ESPN+.
“The objective all together with ESPN is to make it as accessible as attainable, and in as some ways as attainable,” Disney CEO Bob Iger stated throughout a monetary name with buyers Wednesday. “Some will need to devour it simply by means of an app, some as a part of the extra conventional expanded fundamental bundle, and a few will migrate within the path of skinnier bundles, or sports activities bundles solely. We plan to reap the benefits of the emergence of those bundles.”
ESPN+ struggling to seek out important development undoubtedly turns into a priority because the UFC prepares to embark on a brand new broadcast rights deal. The MMA promotion has an unique cope with ESPN that runs by means of the tip of 2025.
Because it stands, ESPN maintains unique negotiating rights with the UFC by means of April 15, nevertheless it’s extremely unlikely the 2 sides attain a brand new deal earlier than that window closes. After that April 15 deadline, different potential suitors can get entangled within the bidding after which the UFC can determine the place the subsequent broadcast deal lands.
Main gamers like Netflix and Amazon are rumored to get entangled with the UFC reportedly searching for over $1 billion per yr for the brand new broadcast rights deal.
Netflix, which not plans to disclose subscriber numbers in 2025, closed out this previous yr with greater than 301 million subscribers — an addition of 13.12 million subscribers from the third quarter to the fourth quarter within the yr. Netflix additionally lately inked an enormous five-year, $10 billion deal for the rights to WWE’s flagship collection Monday Evening Uncooked.
That deal was negotiated by TKO Group Holdings’ CEO Ari Emanuel and firm president and chief working officer Mark Shapiro — the identical folks anticipated to deal with UFC negotiations this yr.
