Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation is on the verge of completing a buyout of Disney-owned sports broadcaster ESPN’s stake in their jointly-owned pan-Asian sports broadcaster ESPN Star Sports, according to the Times of India newspaper. The split was reported exclusively by TV Sports Markets on April 20.
“Many permutations and combinations of the deal have been worked out, which has taken this long, but ESPN is now fully exiting,” a well-placed official said.
The agreement looks like concluding a series of long, drawn out negotiations between the two companies. Previously, ESPN had agreed to buy out News Corp but parent company Disney is thought to have vetoed the deal, deciding that it was not a profitable enough business.
According to the newspaper, senior executives at two media-buying companies said they did not foresee any impact on advertising deals and sponsorships. ESPN, Star Sports and Star Cricket either sell airtime and sponsorship inventory independently or as bulk package deals, they said.
An analyst from an audit firm said the battle for the rights to various cricket events will now be fought out between Star and media company Sony. An ESPN official told the newspaper that employees were uncertain about their future after the deal.