[2006alum]

ESPN is desperate to improve their bottom line. That involves slashing on-air talent and succumbing to the allure of getting into gambling. It’s also why they’re unlikely to chip in enough money to make it worth the ACC’s while to add Stanford and Cal.

What happens if Disney (and Hearst Corp) decide that espn is not pulling its weight and tries to sell it, there are no takers and just close espn down and Disney doesnot stream any college football games, is Disney on the hook for the monies owed to the big10, big12, sec, acc?

The answer to your question, taking all premises as valid, is that Disney remains on the hook unless it could defend its breaches under some sort of force majeure argument. (In theory, it could also try to spin off ESPN into a standalone subsidiary to offload ESPN's liabilities, but that is very tricky legally, and even J&J hasn't been able to pull it off to unload all its Talcum Powder jury verdicts.) I think the likelier outcome is all the stakeholders get together and revise the payouts.

Incidentally, this is why I was so intrigued by the Pac-12's deal with Apple. While it's true that the deal came about half a decade to soon to be superior to the Big 12's deal with Fox/ESPN, over the long term, it's not unrealistic to think Disney spins off ESPN and it lands in the lap of Apple, or another company more familiar with monetizing recurring subscriptions. I think Apple was willing to lose money on the Pac-12 deal to get more experience in the live sports space, and with the Pac-12 Networks bringing their own production teams, it would be seamless on Apple's end. It's just too bad we weren't in 2029...

[2006alum]

ESPN is desperate to improve their bottom line. That involves slashing on-air talent and succumbing to the allure of getting into gambling. It’s also why they’re unlikely to chip in enough money to make it worth the ACC’s while to add Stanford and Cal.

What happens if Disney (and Hearst Corp) decide that espn is not pulling its weight and tries to sell it, there are no takers and just close espn down and Disney doesnot stream any college football games, is Disney on the hook for the monies owed to the big10, big12, sec, acc?

The answer to your question, taking all premises as valid, is that Disney remains on the hook unless it could defend its breaches under some sort of force majeure argument. (In theory, it could also try to spin off ESPN into a standalone subsidiary to offload ESPN's liabilities, but that is very tricky legally, and even J&J hasn't been able to pull it off to unload all its Talcum Powder jury verdicts.) I think the likelier outcome is all the stakeholders get together and revise the payouts.

Incidentally, this is why I was so intrigued by the Pac-12's deal with Apple. While it's true that the deal came about half a decade to soon to be superior to the Big 12's deal with Fox/ESPN, over the long term, it's not unrealistic to think Disney spins off ESPN and it lands in the lap of Apple, or another company more familiar with monetizing recurring subscriptions. I think Apple was willing to lose money on the Pac-12 deal to get more experience in the live sports space, and with the Pac-12 Networks bringing their own production teams, it would be seamless on Apple's end. It's just too bad we weren't in 2029...