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ESPN helped Mickey Mouse a lot in 2024.
During summer, the sports channel helped Disney's streaming business start turning profitable a quarter earlier than expected.
In fiscal Q3, Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ earned $47 million together, but without ESPN, the streaming business would have lost $19 million.
The Walt Disney Company acquired a controlling stake in ESPN back in 1995. Now, in fiscal year 2024, ended Sept. 28, ESPN generated $17.6 billion in revenue, accounting for nearly 20% of Disney’s overall revenue.
Live sports are gaining momentum, and Disney certainly has more plans for it.
So does Disney’s (DIS) biggest streaming rival, Netflix (NFLX) .
Netflix’s next big move: Sports
Netflix does not just produce movies and TV shows now. It has pivoted from its earlier pretenses of "not interested in live sports," trying not to miss out on the big piece of cake.
In January 2024, Netflix announced a massive 10-year, $5 billion deal with WWE to begin airing the wrestling promotion's flagship Raw brand on Netflix in 2025, marking its first long-term commitment to airing live sports programs.
In May, the company announced a three-year deal with the NFL to broadcast a pair of the league's Christmas Day games, which marks the company's first mainstream American team sporting events.
Bloomberg had reported that Netflix would pay the NFL $150 million. But that hefty sum could be a good deal for Netflix — it has been calculated that Netflix could likely make $100 million per game on ads alone.
Related: Netflix's Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson fight tests live sports strategy
According to data provided by Netflix, the Chiefs’ 29-10 victory over the Steelers on Wednesday was the second-most-streamed live sports event on Netflix after November’s Tyson-Paul fight, Front Office Sports reported.
Netflix’s performance topped rivals this year
Netflix has had a robust year. Its earnings and revenue for the three quarters all surpassed Wall Street’s forecast.
In the latest reported third quarter, Netflix earned $5.40 a share, topping analysts’ forecast of $5.12. Revenue was up 15% to $9.83 billion, beating the company’s guidance and consensus estimates.
Netflix expects revenue to grow 15% for both Q4 and full-year 2024.
Related: Analyst unveils bold Apple stock price forecast in 2025
For 2025, Netflix expects revenue of $43 billion to $44 billion, representing growth of 11% to 13% from its 2024 guidance of $38.9 billion. This was primarily driven by increased paid memberships and average revenue per membership.