Jimmy Pitaro is “gambling that ESPN will build a big enough digital business to fill the financial hole being created” as cord-cutting continuesSteve Fenn/ESPN Images
Six years into his tenure, ESPN Chair Jimmy Pitaro is “racing to reinvent ESPN’s business and fend off the biggest threats it has faced in decades” and that means “stretching the company beyond its comfort zone,” according to Simonetti & Whelan of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. Volatility in the media world “forced Pitaro to pursue multiple streaming strategies at once,” despite the “risk of keeping a powerful league partner in the dark.” The new streaming joint venture with Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery will be a “major piece of Pitaro’s legacy” as ESPN’s top exec. If the price point is "too high and it fails to win over enough consumers,” ESPN will have to “find new ways to establish itself in the streaming world.” If the service is successful, it could “reshape the sports-media landscape and improve Pitaro’s chances of winning Disney’s top job.” However, when that venture was announced in February, the NFL was "blindsided -- and furious at being out of the loop.” Irritating the NFL, which "decides which networks carry which games and can be a major ally for ESPN in the streaming business, was risky.” Pitaro is “gambling that ESPN will build a big enough digital business to fill the financial hole being created” as millions of Americans continue to cut the cable-TV cord. Holding on to valuable live-sports rights has "become tougher" amid "competition for those rights from new rivals such as Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV+" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 3/17).
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