It is one of those heady questions that has launched a thousand sports business conferences:
What is the future of televised sports?
With traditional television hemorrhaging households, the abysmal state of the advertising market, and the depressing drumbeat of media job layoffs, the answer to the question remains in constant flux. One of the most powerful CEOs of a media giant, Disney CEO Bob Iger, told CNBC a couple of weeks ago that his company was weighing a sale of its linear TV assets, including broadcast network ABC, and was open for business regarding potentially selling an equity stake in ESPN. CNBC’s Alex Sherman followed with a report a few days later that ESPN has held early talks about strategic partnerships with the NBA, NFL and MLB that could include the leagues taking an equity stake in the business. (ESPN declined to comment on that report.)
To get some insight from one of the top media analysts in the business, I reached out this week to Michael Nathanson, co-founder of the research firm MoffettNathanson. If you are a frequent CNBC watcher, you may recognize his name. Nathanson provided trends in media, communications and technology to institutional investors as an independent research outfit for decades before his company was acquired by the SVB Financial…
