ESPN turns to live streaming

Walt Disney Co., once again shaking up the media industry, says it will stop selling movies to Netflix Inc. and begin offering ESPN sports programming and family films directly to consumers via two new streaming services. Disney's online entertainment service will begin in 2019, the Burbank, California-based company said Tuesday in a statement. Starting next year, an ESPN online service, which the company had said was in the works, will feature 10 000 live events a year, including major league baseball, hockey, soccer and tennis, as well as college sports. Investors didn't have to look far to find out why Disney suddenly chose to upend its business. The company reported a rare drop in revenue and profit, from falling ad sales at ESPN and a decline at the film division. The moves show how seriously CEO Bob Iger views the threat from streaming services like Netflix and Amazon.com Inc. and their impact on conventional pay-TV. “Our direct-to-consumer services mark an entirely new growth strategy for the company, one that takes advantage of the incredible opportunity that changing technology provides us to leverage the strength of our great brands,” Iger said in the statement. The ability to stream some of Disney's most valuable sports and films without a cable television subscription shows how rapidly the business is changing. The new Disney entertainment service will feature Disney films, as well as new programmes and content from the company's Disney Channel library. Those will include movies from the Disney studios and Pixar, but not Marvel or Lucasfilm, the producer of 'Star Wars'. MY BROADBAND

ESPN turns to live streaming

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Namibian Sun 2026-05-11

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ESPN turns to live streaming

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Namibian Sun 2026-05-11

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