The Press Box - 25 for 25: Jimmy Pitaro on ESPN's NFL and WWE Deals, Pat McAfee, and the State of the Company in 2025

Episode Date: August 11, 2025

Hello, media consumers! Bryan heads to the ESPN HQ in Bristol, Connecticut, to sit down with ESPN's chairman, Jimmy Pitaro. They discuss the highly anticipated launch of ESPN's direct-to-consumer app, the massive deals ESPN made with the NFL and WWE, hiring talent vs. developing talent, preparing for ESPN's first Super Bowl, the state of ESPN in 2025, and more. Host: Bryan CurtisGuest: Jimmy PitaroProducer: Kyle Crichton Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey everyone, Danny Hyfitz here from The Ringer Fantasy Football Show. We're coming to you multiple times per week to tell you who to draft, who not to draft. Honestly, that's kind of most of it. The Ringer Fantasy Football Show, YouTube, Spotify, wherever get your podcast, the Ringer Fantasy Football Show. Hello, media consumers. Welcome to Pressbox. Brian Curtis of The Ringer here, along with producer Kyle Crichton. I promised you a very special, we don't talk about it, till it's done interview podcast.

And here it is with ESPN chairman, Jimmy, Pataro. On Monday, I went to Pataro's office at ESPN headquarters in Bristol. I sat with him in front of a big painting of NBA players, and I asked him about everything. The new ESPN directed consumer app, the huge deal his company just made with the NFL, the other huge deal his company made with the WWE, what ESPN is in 2025, Pat McAfee, and much more. Here he is, the man with an app. Jimmy Petaro. Jimmy, if we were having this conversation 15 years ago, we'd be talking about ESPN mostly as a linear network with games and television shows. How do you think about ESPN now? Multi-platform. We are not just a network. Oftentimes, we are referred to as ESPN, the network.

but we've been investing in digital for decades, and it long predates me. But to your question, if you fast forward to today, we are still very much invested in the traditional ecosystem. And that cuts across broadcast and cable and all of our cable channels. At the same time, we take a ton of pride in what we've done digitally, starting with documents. com, then to our ESPN app. Streaming, direct-to-consumer, ESPN Plus, take a ton of pride in where we are today with that product. We are by far the leader in the digital world. We are the number one app.

I think you look at the most recent month, the ESPN app was something like eight or nine times greater in terms of reach than the next closest competitor. I'm not sure I have that exactly right, but you can look at second place, third place, all the way down to like eighth or ninth place and combine the reach of all of those sports apps and they don't equal what the ESPN app does in terms of reach and engagement. And so we take a ton of pride in that. And so, look, we're about to launch our direct-to-consumer experience, meaning all of the ESPN, all in one place.

Bob Iger announced on earnings last week that we will launch on August 21st. And when you take a step back and look at all the investments that we've made across digital, Again, the website, the app, all of our investments on social platforms, we're by far the leader on social, meaning TikTok, Instagram. If you look at our sports competitors, we're by far the leader. It wasn't too long ago that ESPN was the number one brand in the world on TikTok. Now I think we're the number one media brand, but we'll take it. Anyway, that's a long way of saying that all of that investment. over the past couple of decades is going to serve us very well when we launch this

direct to this full direct to consumer offering in about 10 days. So you mentioned the new app. Cable audience is declining. Is this an existential moment for ESPN? Let me let me just make one thing clear before I answer that. Technically it's not a new app. What we're launching is an app with enhancements. So on August 21st, when you fire up the app, it will initially look very similar to the way it looks today. There will be many new features, new functionality, that are added to the experience,

mostly around the games experience, the live event experience. But it's not technically a new app. It's an enhanced app. Yes, this is a really important, this is an important moment. I'm not going to downplay it. At the same time, we've been very clear internally that this is a, this is not a movie opening. This is not something where we will judge ourselves based on the first couple of days, the first couple of weeks, even the first couple of months. And what I mean by that, Brian, is we will regularly update the experience. First off, all of the features and functionality that we have on the roadmap right now, everything that I've been thinking about that our leaders have been thinking about,

we won't launch with all of that. There will be gradual updates and enhancements to the app. At the same time, we are very excited about what we are launching with on August 21st. It is a significantly enhanced experience, but this is the first inning. Like literally it will be the first inning. And you're going to see updates weekly, monthly, some minor tweaks, some very significant. But again, the broader point that I'm making is this is a marathon, not a sprint. And we are going to ultimately not judge ourselves after the first conference.

couple of days or first couple of weeks. So here in the first inning, or in the first mile of the marathon, if I can borrow both of your sports metaphors, why should a customer pay for ESPN through the app rather than cable, YouTube TV, or other means? Look, we are perfectly comfortable with the sports fan remaining in the traditional ecosystem. That's a business that's been very, very good to us. And we expect it will continue to be good to us. When you start to see the marketing, most of it is going to be appealing to or attempting to appeal to the sports fans that are on the sidelines, sports fans that are not currently subscribing to the traditional ecosystem, whether through a cable or satellite offering or a digital NVPD.

We are not looking to have those folks cut the cord, cancel their digital MVPD subscription, and move over to our direct-to-consumer offering. This is really meant to be a fresh new option for sports fans that are currently sitting on the sidelines. What will you learn about a sports fan that comes to you through the app versus a sports fan that would be subscribing through cable? Yeah, that's a great question.

I mean, that's, I guess, why we call it direct-to-consumer. when we make our channels available through Comcast or Charter, Cox, Hulu Live, YouTube TV, we are not getting access to detailed customer information. When you go direct, you are getting that. And so look, just to back up and to kind of connect a few dots here, when I said before that we had been leading in digital, a big part of that strategy has been personalization, right? Right content to the right user at the right time.

We have been leading there, and we've been ahead of the industry, ahead of the game, really, in terms of your ability to favor it a sport, favorite a league, favorite a team, favorite a player. This means if I go to your website or to the existing app, and I'm a Cowboys fan, you feed me Cowboy Story. Right. And so we do that in one of two ways. either you've told us specifically, you've favorited the Cowboys, or we know implicitly because we see that you're consuming news on the Cowboys, you're watching the Cowboys Monday Night Football Game

because you've authenticated, whatever it might be. But yes, we are then taking that data and we are personalizing the experience. And so when we go direct to consumer, just to answer your earlier question, Brian, when we go direct to consumer, we will have significantly more data on the fan on the consumer. And we will then put that data to use to further enhance the experience for each individual fan.

And a great example of that will be SportsCenter for you, the personalized Sports Center that we are launching in beta on August 21st. So when I mentioned before that you will see enhancements to the ESPN app, in addition to those enhancements, you're going to see a fresh new content experience, which is a personalized sports center. So yes, you will wake up. And if the Cowboys played last night or if there were news on the Cowboys, that's what you will see first within your personal.

For me, I will get Yankees, Knicks, Rangers, Notre Dame, all the fans that I care about. again, fans that I've, teams that I've told ESPN I am a fan of, or teams that ESPN, through our algorithms, knows I'm a fan of based on my user behavior. This new app would also allow you to sell me a DAC Prescott jersey or help me bet on the Cowboys or perhaps against the Cowboys, as the case may be. So, yes, contextual relevance. So what you will see is information appearing wrapped around the live game experience.

So you gave a couple of examples, betting and commerce. And yes, the betting experience, the commerce experience, will be connected back to what game is playing. could you imagine a future where the new ESPNM doesn't just include ESPN games, those games that you have the rights to, but games that other partners have the rights to, and they could come to you and pay for a big chunk of the sports universe? I could. I could see that future for ESPN. Let's start with bundling. So when we launch on August 20, the focus will be on ESPN standalone and on the trio, what we internally call the trio,

which is ESPN, Disney Plus, and Hulu. Okay. Soon thereafter, we will bundle with NFL Plus premium, which will include, does include today, Red Zone. soon there after that we will partner with another sports provider that we may or may not be announcing today. You know what? I might as well just tell you. It is Fox and we're pretty excited about that.

So just to back up, Brian, you're going to see a steady drumbeat of offerings. Again, at launch, standalone plus the bundle, the internal bundle with Disney Plus and Hulu, then the bundle with NFL Plus Premium, which includes Red Zone, then the offering the bundle with Fox. Those are bundles. Your question, I think, is more about ingest. Like, theoretically, could we foresee a scenario where you can subscribe to a third-party service in the purchase flow?

and then have that third-party content included within the ESPN app. The answer is yes, we don't have anything to announce or anything done as I sit here today, but that is certainly something that we are interested in. And I would say we are interested in it because it's customer first, right? ESPN is always thinking customer first, fan first. And as a part of that is how do you take friction out of the fan experience? And friction here means I'm a fan of sports broadly, not just the sports that are on ESPN. So how do I find a place that's a sports app, full stop, where I can watch just about everything I want to watch?

Well, that exists today. It's called Hulu Live. Look, that is why just going back to the first question I was addressing here, there's still value in the traditional ecosystem. When I say the traditional ecosystem, I'm including the virtual or digital NVPDs. But Hulu Live, YouTube TV has most sports, not all sports, but the vast majority of sports are available within that ecosystem. And, of course, the more traditional ecosystem like satellite and cable. You mentioned Red Zone. It's part of that big NFL deal you announced last day. You were able to acquire the linear rights to Red Zone.

but the digital rights remained with the NFL as part of this NFL plus premium app. Is that something you wanted to acquire in that deal, those digital rights? Early on, we had conversations with the league about all of their media assets. They made it clear to us that they were very focused on maintaining their digital rights outside of fantasy. And so the conversation then quickly shifted towards, okay, then how do we partner? And so I'm very pleased with where we netted out here, which is the opportunity to bundle ESPN direct to consumer with NFL Plus Premium, which again includes Red Zone. So that is how our fans will access Red Zone digitally. We have acquired, as you, I think we're alluding to, the linear rights to Red Zone.

We're acquiring once the deal closes, we're acquiring the NVPD and digital MVPD contracts that they have and the ad sales rights. But from a digital perspective, NFL is maintaining those rights. And again, we'll give access to the digital product through the bundle. As part of that deal, you did acquire the Red Zone trademark, which could allow you to make other Red Zone channels on the app. What kinds of channels could you make? Look, you've clearly done your homework. That's right. And that was something that was very important to us.

We are very, we're very big fans of the Red Zone product. And we believe that the Red Zone brand resonates in the marketplace, resonates with consumers and sports fans. And so we presented a vision to the league early on in the conversations regarding a potential expansion of that brand. So I made it clear to league executives that that was something that was important to us, this idea of acquiring the brand and potentially expanding it. And so I don't have anything to announce. Obviously, this can't happen until we close.

and we're going through the regulatory process, so that regulatory process will start now. But we are starting to think about, of course, what opportunities there could be, whether it's college football. I think the commissioner mentioned that last week, that there could be an opportunity to expand this brand to college football.

There are other sports that we've started to think about, other leagues like the NBA, the NHL. Of course, that would have to be done in partnership with those leagues, and they would have to want this. But again, I think the Red Zone brand is pretty compelling, and I think that there is significant opportunity there. And have you begun any early conversations with those partners about the possibility? No, we have not. Another thing you didn't acquire in the deal was NFL films. Were you interested in acquiring NFL films? Well, we will have a portion of the NFL Films library for NFL network, which, just to back up here, the plan is, again, once the deal closes,

the plan is to include NFL network in the base tier of ESPN direct-to-consumer. NFL network will include a significant portion of the NFL Films Library. So that is how we are getting access to films. But we do not own the NFL Films Library. How do you see NFL Network fitting with your existing ESPN Network? Great question. Look, we have a ton of experience here. When I say a ton of experience, meaning running conference-specific networks, the SEC network, the ACC network, the ACC network. The NFL network will be another marquee network within our portfolio. And once it closes,

we intend to make it available within ESPN direct-to-consumer. And we intend to tend to continue making it available linearly. And so just to take a step back, Brian, if you look at this from a fan perspective, it's nothing but goodness here, right? Because if you want to continue accessing NFL network in the way you are today linearly, you will be able to do that.

The NFL network will still be available within NFL Plus, so you'll be able to continue accessing it that way. We're actually adding a new distribution channel for NFL network, which is ESPN direct-to-consumer in the ESPN app. You mentioned a couple of times this deal has to be approved by the Trump administration. That's been tricky for other companies. Do you have any fear that approval will be difficult for you? Look, at a transaction like this is always going to require regulatory approval. And so I've mentioned a few times already to you. We see this as pro-consumer and,

pro competition. And so we're looking forward to having the opportunity to be able to tell this story. From my perspective, there's nothing but goodness here for the sports fan. When you took this job in 2018, you said you wanted to eliminate some of the, quote, politically charged commentary from ESPN because it might alienate some viewers. Has that process been completed to your satisfaction? I'm very happy with where we are today. Just just, just, be clear, Brian, we've been incredibly consistent on this for many, many years, which is we do not ever tell our producers, our on-air talent, all the folks covering the leagues, covering the most important stories to stay out of politics, stay out of, you know,

what's happening culturally. What we say is, like, we are a multi-platform sports ecosystem, emphasis on sports. And that's hard. It's hard to be really good. It's hard enough is what I'm getting at. We have many colleagues at the Walt Disney Company,

including folks over at ABC News, that cover pure politics. Now, that is not what we do. that is not who we are. However, there is regularly the intersection of sports and politics, sports and culture, and that's where we need to be present. We, of course, need to show up. We are the place of record. And so when something happens in the sports world that also happens to intersect with what's happening politically, we need to be there. And we have been there. It doesn't mean we've been perfect every step of the way. There have been times where we veered a bit off course.

That's human nature when you look at the amount of networks that we have. If you look at how present we are digitally, socially, you know, we are covering the sports world 24-7 across so many different platforms. It is inevitable that we are going to have missteps. But, you know, you learn from them. You try to get better. You try to be clear. You try to make sure that your folks understand what the North Star is. And I would say for the most part, we've stayed the course and I feel really good about it. So the amount of political commentary within the ESP universe or lack thereof is where you'd like it to be right now. I would say yes. I'm very comfortable with where we are today. The NFL got a 10% equity stake in ESPN as a part of the deal announced last week. How was that going

to change ESPN? If you're asking me, will it change our journalistic principles? The answer is no hard stop. We made this very clear to the league from the get-go. There was no hesitation on my part, and there was no concern coming from the league. the league understands again that we are the place of record, that we cover sports, we cover leagues,

we cover conferences, we cover the industry objectively and fairly, or at least that is our North Star, and they have never once asked me or anyone here, as far as I know, as a part of these transactions, to change how we operate. And again, I have proactively raised this with them, including the commissioner, and he has never once asked me to make any changes to our approach as a part of these transactions.

So early in your tenure here, Seth Wickersham, great writer, had a big and critical piece about the Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam that ran on the website. Let's say a Jimmy Haslam where somebody like him calls you up in a year or a couple of months, it says, wait a sec, we have a 10% equity stake in you. Why is this article on your website? What are you going to say? Again, I don't expect that to happen. I may get the question in general. The part about them owning a 10% stake,

I don't expect that to enter into the conversation, again, based on all the conversations I've had with the league. I will tell you over the years, I'm constantly having conversations with the various leagues about stories that we run that are sometimes critical on our partners. But we have never asked our journalists to make unnatural changes based on our league relationships. And that, I'm telling you, is not going to change. It's a big part of who we are. What does good ESPN coverage of the NFL look like to you?

fair, fair coverage. Look, of course, we're going to continue broadcasting the games. I consider that coverage. But it goes way beyond that. I mean, Hans last week several times referred to our vision for the NFL network. This is Hans Schroeder, the NFL you're talking about. Yes, sorry, yes. he mentioned how impressed the league was with our vision for the NFL network.

But they also understand that we cover the league 24-7-365. And that has been, I don't want to speak for them, but I think they believe that that has been a rising tide and has helped the league to grow. We're not, of course, the only reason why the league has grown the way it has, but we've played, I think, a big part in helping the league grow. And again, it's our broadcast. We take a ton of pride in our teams that cover these games. We now have an alternative broadcast, as you know, with Peyton and Eli, which has gone

quite well for us. We cover the league across all of our studio programming. We cover the league on dot com, in the ESPN app, on social channels. I mean, we have an army of people across games and news and social that, you know, are focused on covering the league. And that is going to continue. And then when the deal closes and we own the NFL network, you can expect that coverage to only increase. And we're pretty excited. First off, we've been very impressed with what the league has accomplished through NFL network.

and we're very excited to take on that asset and to help it grow. It's not unheard of for news organizations to cover the people or the companies that own them or own a partial stake in them, as is the case with you in the NFL. What outlet has done the kind of job you'd like to emulate there? Yeah, that's a tough one. The only place that comes to mind would be the Washington Post in terms of how, you know, they have still relatively new ownership and how they've covered ownership. Yeah, but like I said, Brian, I am very confident that Burke Magnus and his team are going to stay the course here and continue to cover the league the way they always happen.

That's the journalistic part of the equation. Here's the business part. Does partnering with the NFL give you leverage to protect the rights to Monday night football if and when the NFL opens up its rights deals after 2029? No. Look, the league has been very clear with us that we should not expect any preferential treatment when it comes to future rights negotiations. And I fully expect that all of those conversations, negotiations will be held at arm's length the way they always have been. I mean, they might say that, but they're not going to hurt an

asset that they just invested in. Look, I think if you back up, Brian, there are more games across more platforms or more partners than ever before in terms of the NFL. And so they have a lot of interested parties, and they are, as they should be, focused on maximizing revenues. So, no, I do not expect that they will treat us any differently, even with their equity ownership. Another big deal you announced last week was the WWE deal. You bought 10 premium live events, which we used to call pay-per-views, now premium live events, for $325 million a year. What does that do for the new ESPN app? I know that's the number that's been reported. Look, just without commenting on the financials of the deal,

One of the things that we are focused on from a direct-to-consumer perspective is churn and minimizing churn. And when we first started to look at these premium-level events, we immediately thought of the calendar and the fact that these events could help us plug in some holes, some gaps that we might have in our schedule, and thereby minimize churn. This is essentially meaning the WWE's high season runs from about January to July, which conveniently for you are the non-football months of the year.

Very astute observation. Yes, I would also say that the executives at the WWE have been very clear with us that they're willing to work with us in terms of scheduling. So, you know, commitments and they're producing these events. But I would expect that if I were to call Nick Con and say, hey, can you work with me? We have a particular gap here in our schedule. I expect he will. But, yeah, just to back up, Brian, I would emphasize the word premium here.

I mean, the fact that we're getting WrestleMania for our direct-to-consumer platform, SummerSlam, et cetera, is incredibly exciting for us. This company was founded on four letters, including entertainment, in those, the E in those four letters, entertainment. And so we are very excited about the opportunity to deliver against that promise here through these PLEs. Nick Con like Roger Goodell likes to sell things a la carte, and WWE still has a big library of events going back to the 80s and I think beyond at Peacock. Is that something you'd be interested in bidding on in the future? Yeah, we're always interested in content of that quality.

I will tell you that we will have the archival rights for the events that we are airing. But yes, in terms of their library, we certainly would be interested in when, if and when those rights are available. There's big news this AM that Paramount has bought the rights to UFC paying. I don't know if you want to talk figures or not, but about twice as much as you were paying in the previous deal. Are you disappointed to lose those rights? I saw that in the Wall Street Journal this morning. look, we've been in regular conversations with the UFC. We are incredibly proud of how we have been able to elevate the sport, make it more mainstream.

I think if Dana White were sitting here right now, he would echo that. He would echo how great this partnership has been. It's been great for us, too. We acquired these rights at a critical time when we were launching ESPN Plus. and the rights were acquired primarily to grow the ESPN Plus offering. We are also excited about continuing to cover the UFC. If indeed what I've read is true and Paramount will end up with these rights, doesn't mean that we will not continue to cover the league, promote the league,

highlight the league across our platforms. Our fans have grown accustomed to UFC content across ESPN, and I expect that that will continue. TCO's Mark Shapiro, who used to work here,

was quoted saying this morning that the pay-per-view model, which you'd been using for UFC, was, quote, a thing of the past. Do you agree with that? Look, I certainly understand his point of view there. the the pay-per-view model worked for us at the time because we were we as a leadership team decided that it would be in addition to a subscription to ESPN Plus, which of course is a much lower price than what ESPN all indirect to consumer will be offered at.

So for us, it was an opportunity to generate subscriptions to ESPN Plus and then generate revenue that could support the purchase price for these rights. So when we modeled this out, the way we were able to make it work, Brian, is through those two levers, those two components. Subscription or underlying subscription to ESPN Plus with the pay-per-view revenue on top of that. Without that, again, at the time, this is going back to early 2018, we couldn't make the economics work. And we are an incredibly disciplined business here. If we are going to acquire rights, we are going to acquire them because we think that they will be accretive. They will be profitable for our business based on various components. because this was not a linear, if you will, acquisition, the pay-per-view model was what worked for us financially.

But certainly understand, fast forward to today, if what I'm reading is correct and the Paramount plan is to not run the pay-per-view model, I can see how that model could work today. Since you came to ESPN in 2018, you've hired some of the best or most sought-after announcers out there. Joe and Troy to call Money High Football. Now the inside the NBA gang to host some of your pregame stuff. Pat McAfee, do you ever worry you're shopping for announcers at the top of the market

rather than developing your own talent in-house? Look, we're doing both. Yes, all of those folks that you just mentioned are very important to ESPN today and to our future. But we are at the same time continuing to develop talent. By the way, if you look across the industry, so many of the folks that are covering various sports came from ESPN. We have a very, very deep bench. We take a lot of pride in how deep a bench we have at ESPN. And if you look across our studio programming, we have a ton of people that are up and coming that we're incredibly excited about.

and so it is no less a priority today than it ever has been in terms of developing talent. So give me an example. If somebody you're proud of that you developed internally here. Oh, my goodness. How much time do we have? First person that comes to mind is Malika Andrews, who's fantastic across our NBA coverage. But if you look at all the folks that we have across Sports Center, across our studio programming, I mean, it's a long list.

L. Duncan is one of the, the best on-air people that we have today. If you look at what we've done around women's college sports and the WNBA in terms of that trifecta, that is L. Chenet and Andrea, we all know that the three of them really hit the cultural zeitgeist. They are now leading the charge in terms of programming that we have on Disney Plus. us with a show called Vibe Check. It's mind-blowing how great they've been for ESPN. I'd also call out on the football side, the NFL side.

Mina Kimes has done a fantastic job for us. Dan O'Lovsky, we recently announced an extension with Dan. Marcus Spears, also on the NFL side. I mean, I can go on. Matt, Barry, long, long list here. Yeah, I mean, from Malika, I'd say she does a fantastic job, but she was hosting her NBA pregame show, and then you just went out and bought an NBA pregame show.

It doesn't mean that Malika is going to be doing any less NBA coverage for us. Again, the inside the NBA show is going to be around select events, select games, and then the postseason. But Malik is going to be, I can promise you, Brian. Malika is going to be very busy, both regular season and postseason in terms of covering the NBA. Related question. McAfee's show is produced by McAfee himself. Yeah.

Inside the NBA is going to be produced in Atlanta by Turner Sports. The Mannings and Jamie Horowitz do a lot of your Omaha stuff. Are you worried ESPN is going on and buying things rather than making things in-house at the rate it once did? No, again, same answer. Like, these are parallel paths. We continue to produce more content than anyone else. in the industry and it's not even close. But yes, we saw an opportunity with the Manningcast, and thank goodness we did because that

show has been a huge win for us. We saw an opportunity when Turner did not renew on the NBA side in terms of their rights. We saw an opportunity to go after really one of the jewels in the industry, which is inside the NBA, with with with with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, with, Pat, one of the things that I talk about all the time at ESPN is audience expansion. And as a part of that, it's how do we attract a younger audience? And we knew that by licensing in Pat show that we were going to resonate with a far younger audience. And if you look at where we are today, that is indeed what's happening. So that is one model, the licensing model that has worked for us. But again,

That is in parallel with, of course, us producing so much of our own programming here. Have you gotten the value you wanted out of Pat McAvey Show? Absolutely. Yes, we are very, very pleased with it. Again, Pat show is multi-platform. You know, Pat has delivered exactly what he said he was going to deliver in terms of helping us with a younger audience. You saw what happened on College Game Day last year. We had our best ratings ever, the history of that show.

and Pat was a huge part of that. So, yeah, we're excited about the partnership that we've developed with McAfee. What question I had about McAfee is he made comments in February that were apparently about Mary Kate Cornett. Didn't mention her name. He apologized for those comments two and a half weeks ago.

Are you satisfied with the timeliness of that apology? Look, I think Pat wanted to deal with the family on his own terms. And my understanding is that was the cause for the delay and there were thoughtful conversations. Again, I was not a part of those conversations, but my understanding is that there were thoughtful

and productive conversations between the family and Pat. They were satisfied. Pat was satisfied. I was happy with Pat's on air apology, and we move on. What about for viewers? I mean, that's the family you're talking about. What about for viewers of ESPN? look, I don't know how viewers have responded. You're asking me how viewers have responded to Pat's

apology? No, I'm just talking about something was said on the air that Pat has come out and said it wasn't true in February. Five months past without viewers getting any kind of correction or explanation of those comments. Yeah, look, we talked about that internally, but we wanted to be respectful of the entire situation. And again, understanding the dynamics of Pat wanting to communicate with the family first behind the scenes was what ruled the day and I'm at peace with that. A few quick ones before you go.

The 2027 Super Bowl. It's going to be a big day in ESPN history, the first Super Bowl that is on your air. Monday Night Football's got a new director. Talent-wise, do you feel your Super Bowl team is in place now? Hard stop, yes. We feel great about it. Behind the scenes,

on-air talent, alternative broadcast. We love the fact that ESPN's first Super Bowl Super Bowl ever will be in Los Angeles. We are starting to look at synergies, Brian, across the Walt Disney Company. We have many colleagues at Disney that are very, very excited about this game being in Los Angeles. Our sales team is incredibly excited about it from a sponsorship and ad sales perspective.

It's really somewhat serendipitous. Again, this was not our choice. The league decides where the Super Bowls are, but it could not. have worked out better for us that this game is in Los Angeles. We're starting to think about the other alternative broadcasts. Of course, Peyton and Eli will be doing the game, but we're starting to think about a megacast, if you will, like what we do for the college football championship game. If we expand there in terms of other alternative broadcast, that will be in partnership with the league. But they have expressed a lot of excitement about us covering it from

several different angles. Back in February, ESPN and Major League Baseball announced a conscious uncoupling. I believe I have that term correct. Would you like to find a way to re-partner with ESPN, excuse me, with MLB for next season, if in a different way? Yes, we would. Look, going back to my point before about operating with discipline, the deal that we had didn't make sense for us. And so there was a mutual opt-out. We elected to opt-out. But at the time, I had, I've made it very clear to Commissioner Manfred that we love the game of baseball and we wanted to figure something out with them. You know, stay in the game, continue our coverage. We expressed to them at the time our interest in local.

Just to back up here, we see ESPN as the front door, the starting point for sports fans. We believe that, and I've said this publicly several times, that we can be part of the solution in terms of local games. We know that the RSNs are struggling these days and we want to be part of the solution there. And so, yes, we absolutely want to figure something out with baseball. And we remain in conversations with them and there's a very healthy dialogue happening right now. Those conversations are happening right now. Yes. Do you want to run Disney when Bob Eager leaves after next year?

I'm in my dream job. This is the job that I've always wanted. I have never been more excited or energized about a roadmap than I am today. Wake up every morning, excited to go to work. I work with the best people, the best executives in the industry, the best team. And I'm thrilled with the opportunity ahead. I've described your management style in print as being a player's coach? Do you accept that description? Sure. I have no problem with that. Unless I'm missing

something, I think that's a compliment. But look, I have a poster in my home office and it says work hard and be nice to people. I pride myself on working hard. I think that's very much the ESPN way. That's the culture here that I did not invent. I inherited. I've had a good fortune of inheriting it. And people treat each other with respect. We have a weekly staff meeting at ESPN. I get together with my direct reports with the leadership team at ESPN. And we have a saying, discuss debate, decide a line. We oftentimes disagree.

We challenge each other, but we always do it in the right way. And we do the best we can to decide, make some very big decisions as a team. And so far, that strategy is working out quite well for us, I think. Last one for you, Jimmy. I don't like to compare old ESPN and current ESPN because people were playing very different hands of cards. When I was growing up watching this network, ESPN was a sports channel,

but it was also a sensibility, sensibility that I would describe in the old days as being funny, sly, nerdy. Is ESPN still a sensibility in your mind? I think so. Look, I think ESPN, to your point, Brian, is at its best when we are covering sports with substance, heart, and humor.

And if you look across our programming, our studio programming, our original content, our original films, what we're doing on social, I believe that we are still delivering across those three components. In a different way, I know, you know, if you look at where we were with Dan and Keith, for example, if you fast forward to today, there are a lot of similarities in my mind. If you look back to when I was a kid and growing up and watching Danny Keith, I think that fast forward to today,

there are still a lot of similarities there in terms of substance, heart, and humor. But these are different platforms that we are operating on. Like when you're creating content or you're identifying content for the ESPN handle on Instagram, it's a different dynamic than what we were looking at or what we have been looking at for linear television. And then even if you look at what we're doing across our linear networks, there's a lot of variation, right? So we still have a very polished sports center, which I love and really resonates with me. And then we have a lot of programming. Like you asked me about

Pat McAfee before, Pat's show has a very different vibe. And again, and I apologize for repeating myself, but what we're seeing is it is very much resonating with a new audience, an audience that embraces authenticity. And so my job is to make sure that we are protecting the core audience and at the same time able to expand. And if there's one thing that we take pride in, it ESPN in terms of what we've been able to deliver over the past decade. It's that we do believe that we have protected the core audience, but we have introduced ESPN to millions of new fans. If you look at younger people, younger people see ESPN as trustworthy. They see us as innovative. They see us as the leader in terms of digital, in terms of streaming. And then the last thing I'd say is,

younger people see us as a digital first brand. And so that bodes well for us as we're about to launch this direct-to-consumer product. The app, not a new app, but a juiced-up app launches August 21st. Jimmy Patero, thanks for going on the press box. Thanks, Brian. All right, that's the press box. I'm Brian Curtis. Production Magic by Kyle Crichton.

All right, on Thursday, you know that Joel Anderson is in Houston on vacation. So we're welcoming in, my man, David Shoemaker. It's going to be a Monday podcast on a Thursday. We've got a worst question ever asked at the White House, a golden corral buffet of only in journalism words. And you know, there will be more lukewarm takes about the media. See you Thursday.