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Disney Streaming (formerly known as BAMTech Media from 2015 to 2018, and Disney Streaming Services from 2018 to 2021) is a technology subsidiary of
The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on Octobe ...
located in
Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
,
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. It was established in 2015 as a spin-off of
MLB Advanced Media MLB Advanced Media (MLBAM) is a limited partnership of the club owners of Major League Baseball (MLB) based in New York City and is the Internet and interactive branch of the league. Robert Bowman, former president and CEO of MLBAM, indicated ...
—the
digital media Digital media is any communication media that operate in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital media can be created, viewed, distributed, modified, listened to, and preserved on a digital electronics device. ...
arm of
Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (A ...
, focused on providing
streaming video Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of ...
technology, particularly for
over-the-top content An over-the-top (OTT) media service is a media service offered directly to viewers via the Internet. OTT bypasses cable, broadcast, and satellite television platforms: the types of companies that traditionally act as controllers or distributor ...
(OTT) services. The company's major clients include
ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...
(for its
ESPN+ ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The c ...
and
ESPN3 ESPN3 (formerly ESPN360 and ESPN3.com) is an online streaming service owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which operates the network, through its 80% controlling ownership interest) and Hearst Communications ( ...
services), the
National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey sports league, league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranke ...
, and
TheBlaze Blaze Media is an American conservative media company. It was founded in 2018 as a result of a merger between TheBlaze and CRTV LLC. The company's leadership consists of CEO Tyler Cardon and president Gaston Mooney. It is based in Irving, Tex ...
. It was majority owned by MLB Advanced Media (which is, in turn, a consortium of MLB's principal team owners), with minority stakes held by the NHL and other investors. Disney acquired a minority stake in the company in August 2016 for $1 billion, and the following year, announced its intent to increase its stake to a 75% controlling stake for $1.58 billion. The deal was approved by regulators in September 2017. With the acquisition of BAMTech by Disney, the company began to develop two subscription streaming services aligned with Disney properties: the sports-oriented service,
ESPN+ ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The c ...
, and the global family entertainment service,
Disney+ Disney+ is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned and operated by the Media and Entertainment Distribution division of The Walt Disney Company. The service primarily distributes films and television se ...
; United States general entertainment service
Hulu Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television series ...
and Latin America general entertainment service
Star+ A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by its gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night, but their immense distances from Earth ma ...
were later transferred into the company in August 2021. Disney had acquired sole ownership by November 2022.


History


BAMTech Media (2015–2018)

BAMTech was founded in February 2015 through
MLB Advanced Media MLB Advanced Media (MLBAM) is a limited partnership of the club owners of Major League Baseball (MLB) based in New York City and is the Internet and interactive branch of the league. Robert Bowman, former president and CEO of MLBAM, indicated ...
, spinning-out its streaming technology business into a separate company with outside investors. The formation of the company was approved by MLB Advanced Media's board of directors on August 13, 2015. Under the plan, MLB-specific properties (such as MLB.com) would remain under league control. In August 2016,
The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on Octobe ...
acquired a 1/3 stake in the company for $1 billion, with an option to acquire a majority stake in the future. On November 1, 2016, BAMTech announced a partnership with
Discovery Communications Discovery, Inc. was an American multinational mass media factual television conglomerate based in New York City. Established in 1985, the company operated a group of factual and lifestyle television brands, such as the namesake Discovery Chan ...
to form a European joint venture known as BAMTech Europe. Its first client is
Eurosport Eurosport is a group of pay television networks in Europe and parts of Asia. Owned by Warner Bros. Discovery through its international sports unit, it operates two main channels— Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2—across most of its territorie ...
, the pan-European rights holder of the
Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a multi ...
beginning
2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...
. The following month,
Riot Games Riot Games, Inc. is an American video game developer, publisher and esports tournament organizer based in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in September 2006 by Brandon Beck and Marc Merrill to develop '' League of Legends'' and went on ...
announced a deal with BAMTech for the company to distribute and monetize broadcasts of professional competitions in its multiplayer video game ''
League of Legends ''League of Legends'' (''LoL''), commonly referred to as ''League'', is a 2009 multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published by Riot Games. Inspired by '' Defense of the Ancients'', a custom map for ''Warcraft III'', ...
'' through 2023, under which BAMTech would pay Riot at least $50 million per-year, and split advertising revenue. However, after multiple delays, the deal was shelved in 2018 (with Riot instead entering into a non-exclusive distribution deal with
ESPN+ ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The c ...
to include its content on the platform). On February 21, 2017, Michael Paull was named BAMTech's CEO. On August 8, 2017, Disney announced that it would increase its ownership in the company to a 75% controlling stake for $1.58 billion. Disney also reiterated its plan to launch an ESPN-branded over-the-top service in early-2018 followed by a Disney-branded direct-to-consumer streaming service in 2019. BAMTech Media was placed under Kevin A. Mayer, Disney's senior executive vice president and chief strategy officer. The company formally launched a website and corporate identity in September 2017. On November 7, 2017, BAMTech acquired the Manchester-based software firm Cake Solutions. As part of the corporate re-structuring, former director of Cake Solutions, Ian Brookes departed the company.


Disney Streaming Services (2018–2021)

In Disney's March 14, 2018, segment reorganization in anticipation of integrating Fox assets, BAMTech was transferred to Walt Disney Direct-to-Consumer & International. BAMTech named Kevin Swint as senior vice-president and general manager of the Disney forthcoming streaming service in January 2018 with Agnes Chu as programming executive. In October 2018, it was reported that the company had been internally renamed Disney Streaming Services. On October 31, 2018, ESPN International executive vice-president and managing director Russell Wolff was named executive vice-president and general manager of ESPN+. WWE did not renew its contract with BAMTech when it expired at the end of 2018, and signed a deal with
Endeavor Streaming Endeavor Streaming is a digital video technology company headquartered in Plainview, New York, USA. Founded in 2004 as NeuLion, the company was acquired in 2018 by sports and entertainment company, Endeavor, and rebranded Endeavor Streaming. ...
in January 2019.


Disney Streaming (2021–present)

On August 3, 2021, Disney announced on Twitter that the company was renamed as Disney Streaming. In the same month, it was reported that Disney was purchasing the NHL's 10% ownership stake in Disney Streaming Services for $350 million, giving Disney a 85% ownership stake and that
Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (A ...
's 15% stake in the company could be purchased by Disney, as soon as 2022. On August 10, 2022, it was reported that Disney Streaming had a total of 221 million subscriptions from
Disney+ Disney+ is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned and operated by the Media and Entertainment Distribution division of The Walt Disney Company. The service primarily distributes films and television se ...
,
Hulu Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television series ...
and
ESPN+ ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The c ...
combined. At the time, this number surpassed
Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a ...
, which reported having 220.7 million subscribers as of July 2022. On November 29, 2022, Disney revealed in their annual report that they had acquired MLB's remaining 15% stake in the company for $900 million.


References


External links

* {{Disney 2015 establishments in New York City 2016 mergers and acquisitions American companies established in 2015 Companies based in Manhattan Corporate spin-offs Disney acquisitions Entertainment companies based in New York City Entertainment companies established in 2015 Internet properties established in 2015 Mass media companies established in 2015 Online mass media companies of the United States The Walt Disney Company subsidiaries