DIS Walt Disney Co

By Sahil Patel 

Walt Disney Co.'s ESPN has had to significantly revamp its programming with the loss of live sports during the coronavirus pandemic, and now it's altering its marketing as well.

On Monday, ESPN is introducing two new commercials addressing the impact of covid-19 in different ways.

One features ESPN on-air talent such as Stephen A. Smith, Doris Burke and former baseball star Alex Rodriguez delivering a message of unity and advising viewers to practice social distancing.

Ms. Burke recorded her portion after announcing last week that she has the virus.

The second ad continues the network's "There's No Place Like Sports" campaign and features uplifting sports moments such as the recent National Hockey League game in which a Zamboni driver filled in as a last-minute goalie. It ends with the message "We miss it, too."

The ads will appear 10 to 15 times a day each through late May, said Laura Gentile, senior vice president of marketing for ESPN. "It's a statement of how ESPN feels right now," she said.

"Sports is an escape -- that's what people are missing right now, because there is no escaping the news and this situation," Ms. Gentile said. "There is a sense of reinforcing that we are right there with you, " she added.

The loss of live sports has left sports networks with hours of programming time to fill every day. ESPN has used a mix of live news coverage, old games and programming stunts such as bringing back "The Ocho," a collection of offbeat sporting events and games inspired by the movie "Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story."

The pause in sports has also changed the work for ESPN's 185-person marketing organization, which now has to move more quickly to promote new programming plans by the network.

"It's been the most intense two weeks of some of our careers," Ms. Gentile said. "We've had to reboot our entire marketing lineup and stay lockstep with production, developing new promos and new work to support all that."

"If you look at the magnitude of programming changes we've had to make, marketing has essentially had to follow suit," she added.

ESPN is also running promos for a documentary series about Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls and the NFL draft later in April.

Audiences for ESPN have slipped since major sports leagues stopped play. Prime-time viewership on ESPN's flagship network averaged 550,000 viewers the week of March 16, down from 647,000 a week earlier, according to Nielsen data.

The National Basketball League suspended its season on March 11. The previous week -- the last full week ESPN had live sports -- its main network averaged more than 1.04 million viewers in prime time, according to Nielsen.

ESPN is considering responding by spending more money to promote itself outside of the TV networks and digital platforms it owns, Ms. Gentile said.

"We haven't 100% landed on the plan yet," she said. "In this time, more than ever, you may very well have to spend off-channel to reach the fans you have to reach, because you don't have those massive [live game] NBA audiences to market to."

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 02, 2020 12:23 ET (16:23 GMT)

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