ESPN+ is the strongest component of Disney+ when one considers ESPN+'s subscriber growth and average monthly revenue per paid subscriber. ESPN+'s "anchor tenant" is the UFC (Disney signed a 5-year, $1.5 billion deal with Endeavor-owned UFC that became effective January 2019). Disney will want to renew its UFC deal. Therefore, why not acquire the asset … Continue reading Why Disney May Acquire Endeavor
Tag: UFC
WWE To Endeavor
CNBC reports that Ari Emanuel's Endeavor (ticker: EDR) will acquire WWE (ticker: WWE). CNBC is in a position to know the deal outcome as its parent company Comcast (ticker: CMCSA) is a WWE partner and was the natural acquirer in our view. As we wrote last week, dark horse Endeavor is in the events / … Continue reading WWE To Endeavor
Live Sports Remains The Traditional Content King
Live sports still captures the most eyeballs across traditional content categories (certain video game title releases capture more eyeballs). If Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN), Disney (DIS), Google (GOOGL), WarnerBrosDiscovery (WBD), Fox (FOXA), Comcast (CMCSA), Netflix (NFLX) or another large media player was to announce a deal that it was acquiring a sports franchise, I generally … Continue reading Live Sports Remains The Traditional Content King
Live Sports In the Metaverse
As a follow-up to our September 30th article about META and the UFC working together to broadcast fights in the metaverse, we got our first taste on Friday night as to what a mixed reality MMA fight looks like. Technically it was the LFA MMA league which was broadcast on the UFC's proprietary Fight Pass … Continue reading Live Sports In the Metaverse
META & The UFC?
Meta Platforms (META) would provide the UFC an on-ramp to the metaverse. The UFC would provide META with valuable global content that could both serve as grist for META's virtual reality mill and provide META with a competitive edge in the content wars versus TikTok, Apple (AAPL), Amazon/Prime Video/Twitch (AMZN), Apple (AAPL), Google/YouTube (GOOG), Microsoft/Xbox … Continue reading META & The UFC?
Endeavor Should Spin-Off The UFC
Newly public Endeavor Group (tkr: EDR) is valued at $13 billion. The spin transaction that we recommend is of Endeavor's "Owned Sports Properties" or "OSP", segment which primarily consists of the UFC led by UFC co-founder and president Dana White. That segment grew March Q revenue by 22% Y-O-Y to $284 million (see table below) … Continue reading Endeavor Should Spin-Off The UFC
The Return of Live Events
This year's Super Bowl in Jacksonville, FL had limited fans in attendance. The WWE (tkr: WWE) plans a return to live events in 2H 2021 per last night's earnings call. This Saturday Endeavor's UFC business unit will host approximately 15,000 fans at its in-arena event (also in Jacksonville) and plans to be in Texas for … Continue reading The Return of Live Events
Streaming Wars: ESPN+ KO’s DAZN
Streaming content provider DAZN suffered a knockout over the weekend that may be impossible to come back from. We are calling it now. The Streaming Wars have suffered the first high profile casualty. DAZN - the nascent streaming network for combat sports - is in the process of raising money. We would love to be … Continue reading Streaming Wars: ESPN+ KO’s DAZN
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