Disney plans, at last count, umpteen different ways to view Super Bowl LXI. The affiliates of the three-letter network that will televise the game aren’t happy about that.
Via Alex Sherman of CNBC, the ABC broadcast affiliates are “steaming” about the plan to have the game on ABC and ESPN and ESPN2 and ESPNU and NFL Network and the Disney Channel and Disney+ and Disney XD. Per Sherman, the collection of various options “may drop advertising revenue associated with broadcast viewership by up to 35% compared to last year.”
It stands to reason, then, that the affiliates risk losing viewers to the other channels and platforms.
“Any time you fragment distribution, you’re destroying value for each of the individual platforms,” an unnamed station group CEO told Sherman. “I don’t have a problem with what Disney is doing — I have a problem that there’s no acknowledgement that we’re losing money.”
The situation is currently being discussed, per Sherman, by the ABC Television Affiliates Association Board of Governors, which acts as a liaison between the affiliates and ABC.
The chairman of the ABC Television Affiliates Association Board of Governors declined to comment to Sherman. Disney issued a statement.
“Our ABC affiliates are important partners and we always take that into careful consideration when making these decisions,” a Disney spokesperson told Sherman. “We’ve successfully navigated similar situations in collaboration with the governing board many times before, and this is no different.”
The only good news for the ABC affiliates is that, frankly, not many people (relative to the total audience) will be watching anything other than the main broadcast of the Super Bowl. It’s a communal event, which minimizes individual viewing. In a group setting, anything other than the primary broadcast of the game will be harder to follow.