ESPN, Disney Held Talks With NBA, MLB and NFL as Strategic Partners: Report

Disney-owned ESPN has held conversations with the NBA, MLB and NFL that could involve the pro sports leagues taking equity stakes in the business, according to a CNBC report on Friday afternoon.

CNBC, citing anonymous sources, reported that Disney CEO Bob Iger and ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro held early talks about bringing the leagues on as minority investors.

In a statement to CNBC, an NBA spokesperson said, “We have a longstanding relationship with Disney and look forward to continuing the discussions around the future of our partnership.”

The NBA and Disney have reportedly discussed various structures about a renewal of media rights. Iger had previously said Disney is looking for a strategic partner for ESPN as it looks to transition the sports network to streaming, noting that selling a stake in the business was a possibility.

“Our position in sports is very unique and we want to stay in that business,” Iger told CNBC in an interview last week. “We’re going to be open minded about looking for strategic partners that could either help us with distribution or content. I’m not going to get too detailed about it, but we’re bullish about sports as a media property.”

Disney is trying to transition out of the traditional cable model, which has cratered as consumers continue to cut the cord.

But conflicts of interest could emerge. ESPN employs journalists that cover the major sports leagues, and selling an ownership stake to the leagues could hinder the network's ability to report on them objectively.

It's worth noting that if leagues take an ownership stake in ESPN, that could give them incentive to feature more games on ESPN rather than Disney's competitors, including Comcast's NBCUniversal, Fox, Amazon, Paramount Global and Apple, all of which participate in bidding wars for sports rights.

CNBC also reported that the National Hockey League may want to get involved in any deal that involves the NBA and NFL, which would be an unprecedented deal among multiple pro leagues.