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ESPN’s Jimmy Pitaro Will Decide the Fate of Cable Television
Trying to forecast when ESPN will go entirely online is one of the great guessing games of the media industry
Ever since Bob Iger returned to lead the Walt Disney Co. in November, he’s spoken almost every day with one of his key deputies, ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro. Iger is an avid sports fan with a deep knowledge of history. “He has forgotten more about sports than I’ll ever know,” Pitaro said.
But these days, the two executives don’t focus much on the past. Many of their conversations, Pitaro said in a recent interview, concern ESPN’s future — specifically, its streaming service, ESPN+, and deciding the right moment to someday offer the full channel to the growing legions of cable cord-cutters.