They Say: Disney’s Sports Scorecard
Excerpted from a Los Angeles Business Journal column by David Carter, principal of Sports Business Group and a teacher at USC’s Graduate School of Business.
Signaling its ability to take full advantage of televised sports, Disney’s recent acquisition of the National Basketball Association’s broadcast rights made it the first network to ever hold broadcast rights to every major sports league. Disney’s stranglehold extends even further since it televises major events, including college football’s Bowl Championship Series, soccer’s World Cup, golf’s British Open and the Indianapolis 500.
Conversely, team ownership affords Disney none of these synergies. Because Disney sold its cable rights to both the Angels and the Ducks to arch rival Fox, Disney is unable to fully maximize the teams’ marketability.
Adding to Disney’s franchise ownership woes is that neither of its teams has driven tourist traffic to Disneyland. And Disneyland has not enjoyed much success directing out-of-towners to their sporting events either.
If anything can be learned from Disney’s presence in sports entertainment, it’s that forming strategic alliances with sports leagues and properties appears to be a more prudent approach to sports marketing for entertainment conglomerates than establishing a fully integrated, internal, sports business model.
