Disney Sees OTT Five Years Out As A Viable Competitor

The rumors that ESPN’s days as heavyweight champion are over are vastly overstated. Or so says Robert A. Iger, chairman and CEO of The Walt Disney Company. During the company’s Q3 2015 earnings call. Before diving into specific financial results, Iger addressed what he called the buzz surrounding ESPN’s faltering numbers driven by cord cutters and what he called “potential trends among young audiences younger audiences who consume TV in different ways.”

Iger said that Disney is currently placing its bets on MVPDs rather than OTT VOD services, and “we look at the television business and look at it as a consumer offering.” He added, “We don’t see dramatic declines (in multi-channel services) in the next five years or so, we’re not taking radical steps away from that business.”

However, Iger did point out that every new digital service has approached Disney for access to its programming. He refused to go into detail about Disney’s work with Verizon for its proposed new OTT platform, Go90.

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