ESPN’s profits increased by 9.4 per cent to $1.38 billion (€1.07 billion) in the three months until September 29, but its income from advertising was flat, according to the sports broadcaster’s parent company, media conglomerate Disney.
Martin Pyykkonen, a senior equity analyst at financial services company Wedge Partners, told the Bloomberg news agency: “Ad sales didn’t really rebound after the Olympics [which was shown on the NBC network in the US] ended. ESPN is still an incredibly powerful brand, but maybe it’s kind of peaked.”
Disney chief executive Bob Iger said that the conglomerate was “less susceptible to advertising trends whether they are from reduced political spending or ups and downs in the economy” because advertising accounted for less than 40 per cent of the total revenue at ESPN.
He added: “We have great confidence in our ability to sustain growth in our Disney Channel businesses and ESPN. We feel great about the growth potential for both businesses.”
Disney’s quarterly sales increased by 3.4 per cent year-on-year to $10.8 billion, short of analysts’ projections of $10.9 billion. Net income increased by 14 per cent to $1.24 billion.