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ESPN

People Won’t Pay $20 for Standalone ESPN

By
Benjamin Snyder
Benjamin Snyder
Managing Editor
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By
Benjamin Snyder
Benjamin Snyder
Managing Editor
Down Arrow Button Icon
January 15, 2016, 4:54 PM ET
Time Warner Cable, Disney Talks Said To Focus On ESPN3.Com
The ESPN logo is displayed outside L.A. Live, which houses the ESPNZone, in Los Angeles, California, U.S., on Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2010. Time Warner Cable Inc.'s negotiations to renew rights to ESPN may be held up on a demand by the sports channel's owner, Walt Disney Co., to be paid for a related website, people with knowledge of the talks have said. Photographer: Jonathan Alcorn/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesPhotograph by Bloomberg via Getty Images
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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.

About the Author
By Benjamin SnyderManaging Editor
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Benjamin Snyder is Fortune's managing editor, leading operations for the newsroom.

Prior to rejoining Fortune, he was a managing editor at Business Insider and has worked as an editor for Bloomberg, LinkedIn and CNBC, covering leadership stories, sports business, careers and business news. He started his career as a breaking news reporter at Fortune in 2014.

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