Why There May Not Be a Standalone ESPN App

By Benjamin SnyderManaging Editor
Benjamin SnyderManaging Editor

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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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 Images
Photograph by Bloomberg via Getty Images

Don’t expect a standalone ESPN streaming app any time soon.

The sports broadcaster’s president John Skipper said in a recent interview with Re/code that there are no plans to offer ESPN, which is owned by The Walt Disney Company (DIS), by itself.

“We can sell ESPN as a standalone product, but we do not believe it right now to be good business,” Skipper said in the interview. “We’re in 90 million homes,” he added, “so no, we do not have a contemplation now that we would launch as a standalone.”

Meanwhile, Skipper’s comments come a month after a survey was released citing that people wouldn’t pay $20 for a standalone ESPN app, as Fortune reported.

Notably, other cable channels are already offered through standalone apps, including Nickelodeon and HBO, wrote The Verge.

“We can sell ESPN as a standalone product, but we do not believe it right now to be good business.”

During the interview, Skipper was also asked about whether or not ESPN has been in discussions with tech giants Apple (AAPL) and Amazon (AMZN) about streaming deals. “I didn’t say we’re talking to anybody,” he said in the interview. “I said a number of people have expressed interest and we are in discussions with a large number of people.”

“I think other people will enter into some markets with lighter packages in this calendar year,” Skipper told Re/code.

This post has been updated to correct a quote.