People don’t want to shell out $20 for a hypothetical standalone ESPN streaming service. At least, according to one survey.
In a new report commissioned by BTIG Research, a majority of respondents said they wouldn’t pay for a Netflix-style product solely for the sports network, as reported by Quartz. In fact, of 1,600 people polled, 85% said they wouldn’t pay the $20 for an imagined, separate service per month (for ESPN and ESPN2).
Another 9% said they didn’t know if they’d pay that much, while just 6% said they would be willing if such a platform were launched, according to the study.
Interestingly, the commissioner of the survey, Rich Greenfield, has covered the subject in the past and has been outspoken about his firm’s ESPN research.
The study went one step further and asked respondents whether they’d want to remove ESPN from their cable and satellite packages in order to save $8 on a monthly bill. A majority of those polled, 56%, said they’d be willing to have it removed.
The results come as Bob Iger, the CEO of Disney which owns ESPN, has said in the past that the network’s brand could be sold to consumers directly as a separate service. In November, Fortune reported that ESPN’s subscriber base continues to shrink.
ESPN declined to comment about the study’s findings.
