The Walt Disney Company (DIS), which recently agreed a deal with live sports streaming service FuboTV (FUBO) and ditched plans for a new joint venture sports TV platform, has seen its best NFL viewing figures ever.
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The company said it delivered a record-breaking audience across ESPN platforms, as the Houston Texans played at the Kansas City Chiefs on Saturday, January 18th, which saw the Chiefs win 23-14.
It was the company’s most-watched NFL game of all-time, excluding the Super Bowl, as 32.7 million viewers surpassed each NFL on ESPN game, playoffs and regular season fixture since 1987.
The Texans-Chiefs viewership is expected to surpass 33 million viewers when Nielsen reports the final audience this week, the company said in a release.
It signals further progress on sports streaming for Disney after a difficult few months. Disney’s Monday Night Football broadcast on ABC and ESPN attracted a US TV audience of 20.5 million viewers in its season debut, the company said in September, a drop of 9.7% from the year before.
That reflected the blackout of DirecTV’s 11 million customers amid a dispute with Disney over bundling rights.
DIS Moves Past Bundling Worries
Indeed, bundling rights have been at the heart of legal disputes for DIS, after a U.S. judge last year ruled that bundling practices where distributors are forced to accept several channels as a package from Disney and other content companies were likely illegal. That led to a stand-off between satellite provider DirecTV and Disney, which dented the NFL figures, although a resolution was later reached.
Following this, earlier this month Disney said it will combine its Hulu + Live TV business with FUBO, in a deal that ended legal action the smaller company was taking against a planned joint venture sports streaming service.
Under the transaction announced January 6th, FuboTV settled all litigation with Disney and ESPN relating to Venu Sports, the sports streaming platform planned by ESPN, FOX (FOX) and Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD).
However, only a few days later the joint venture partners abandoned plans to launch the sports streaming platform altogether.
Partly at least that’s because satellite TV provider DirecTV argued the settlement dropping the case against Venu “restores an anticompetitive runway” for the joint venture defendants “to control the future of the live pay TV market.” Fellow satellite TV provider EchoStar made a similar argument.
“In an ever-changing marketplace, we determined that it was best to meet the evolving demands of sports fans by focusing on existing products and distribution channels,” DIS, FOX, and WBD said.
Is Disney Stock a Good Stock to Buy Today?
Analysts are positive about DIS stock, with a Strong Buy consensus rating based on 17 Buys and five Holds. Over the past year, DIS has increased by more than 15%, and the average DIS price target of $126.84 implies an upside potential of more than 16% from current levels.
