Big Questions For Any ESPN ‘Strategic Partner’
Reporting in the last week revealed that ESPN has already held talks with the NFL, NBA and MLB about minority investment stakes as part of said strategic partnerships. Presumably the list won’t be limited to those leagues. But the idea of ESPN getting even deeper into business with these long-time partners did spur some questions — which we dive into below:
Which league partners make the most sense?
The key question starts at what we know — talks were already started with the NFL, NBA and MLB. Noticeably absent there is the NHL. But otherwise, this is an accurate picture of the leagues that are most heavily tied to ESPN already.
The chart above looks back at iSpot data from 2022 to reveal which sorts of programming delivers the highest share of household TV ad impressions across ESPN and ESPN2. Of note, each sport/league’s totals include live competitions as well as syndicated airings and studio shows dedicated specifically to that sport (i.e. NFL Live is included in the larger NFL total).