The Walt Disney Company, together with its subsidiaries, operates as an entertainment company worldwide.
Segments
The company operates through five business segments: Media Networks, Parks and Resorts, Studio Entertainment, Consumer Products, and Interactive.
Media Networks segment
This segment includes broadcast and cable television networks, television production operations, television distribution, domestic television stations, and radio networks and stations.
Cable Networks
The company’s cable networks include ESPN, the Disney Channels, and ABC Family. The company also operates the UTV Software Communications Limited (UTV)/Bindass networks in India. The cable networks group produces its own programs or acquires rights from third-parties to air programs on the company’s networks. The company also has interests in joint ventures that operate cable and broadcast programming services.
Cable networks derive the majority of their revenues from fees charged to multi-channel video programming distributors (MVPDs) for the right to deliver the company’s programming to their customers (subscribers), and for certain networks (primarily ESPN and ABC Family), the sale to advertisers of time in network programs for commercial announcements. The company’s cable networks operate under multi-year agreements with MVPDs that include contractually determined fees. The company also sells programming developed by its cable networks worldwide in pay and syndication television markets and in physical (DVD and Blu-ray) and electronic formats.
ESPN
ESPN is a multimedia sports entertainment company that operates eight 24-hour domestic television sports networks, such as ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU (a network devoted to college sports), ESPNEWS, the recently launched SEC Network (a sports programming network dedicated to Southeastern Conference college athletics), ESPN Classic, the regionally focused Longhorn Network (a network dedicated to The University of Texas athletics), and ESPN Deportes (a Spanish language network), which are all simulcast in high definition except ESPN Classic.
ESPN programs the sports schedule on the ABC Television Network, which is branded ESPN on ABC. ESPN owns 16 television networks outside of the United States (primarily in Latin America) that allow ESPN to reach sports fans in approximately 60 countries and territories in 4 languages. In addition, ESPN holds a 30% equity interest in CTV Specialty Television, Inc., which owns television networks in Canada, including The Sports Network, The Sports Network 2, Le Reseau des Sports (RDS), RDS2, RDS Info, ESPN Classic Canada, the NHL Network, and Discovery Canada.
ESPN holds rights for various professional and college sports programming, including the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball (MLB), the College Football Playoffs, major college football and basketball conferences, National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing, the Wimbledon Championships, US Open Tennis, and the British Open and Masters golf tournaments.
ESPN also operates ESPN.com, which delivers sports news, information, and video each month through its national hub and six local sites, such as ESPNBoston.com, ESPNChicago.com, ESPNDallas.com, ESPNDeportesLosAngeles.com, ESPNLosAngeles.com, and ESPNNewYork.com; WatchESPN, which delivers live access to ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN3, ESPNEWS, SEC Network, Longhorn Network, and ESPN Deportes on computers and mobile devices and is accessible in 75 million households; ESPN3, which is ESPN’s live multi-screen sports network and is a destination that delivers various sports events annually and is accessible at WatchESPN and streamed through various third party services; ESPN Mobile Properties, which delivers content, including live game coverage, alerts and highlights, to mobile devices; ESPN Events, which owns and operates a portfolio of collegiate sporting events worldwide; ESPN Radio, which distributes talk and play by play programming and is a sports radio network in the U.S.; ESPN The Magazine, which is a bi-weekly sports magazine; ESPN Enterprises, which develops branded licensing opportunit