ESPN President John Skipper, one of the most powerful figures in sports and media, resigned from the network Monday, telling employees in an email that he’s struggled with a substance addiction for many years.
Skipper has been the network’s guiding force in a tumultuous period, helping it secure television rights to some of the sporting world’s biggest franchises and figuring out a plan to steady the ship amid changing viewership habits that resulted in a dramatic drop in subscription numbers in recent years. Despite these challenges, Disney reportedly had recently signed him to a contract extension that was supposed to keep him at the helm of ESPN through 2021.
“I have struggled for many years with a substance addiction,” Skipper wrote to ESPN employees in an email. “I have decided that the most important thing I can do right now is to take care of my problem. … I come to this public disclosure with embarrassment, trepidation and a feeling of having let others I care about down.”
Skipper, who also served as co-chairman of the Disney Media Networks, said he discussed the matter with Disney executives “and we mutually agreed that it was appropriate that I resign.”
“I join John Skipper’s many friends and colleagues across the company in wishing him well during this challenging time,” Bob Iger, the Disney chairman and chief executive officer said in a statement. “I respect his candor and support his decision to focus on his health and his family.”
Skipper’s departure is immediate, and he’ll be replaced in the interim by George Bodenheimer, who served as ESPN’s president from 1998-2011 and also as the network’s executive chairman until May 2014. Bodenheimer will serve as acting chairman for 90 days, ESPN said in a statement, and will help Iger identify a permanent replacement.
“I’ve stayed in close contact with John, and I believe in the direction he’s taking ESPN,” Bodenheimer said in a statement. “He’s assembled an outstanding leadership team — many of whom I know very well — and I am extremely confident we will work together effectively to move ESPN forward during this transition.”
Skipper, who turns 62 on Tuesday, came from a publishing background and joined ESPN after stints at Rolling Stone and US, which is now called Us Weekly. He started at ESPN in 1997 as senior vice president and general manager of ESPN The Magazine and was elevated to company president on Jan. 1, 2012.
“This is a guy who’s resolute, more aware of where he is and where he wants to go and confident as much as he’s scared. I’m encouraged,” said one ESPN official who had spoken with Skipper since the resignation became public.
The official stressed that Skipper’s sudden departure is linked solely to an addiction problem and said he wasn’t sure whether Skipper planned to seek formal treatment and enter a rehabilitation facility.
In the 2011 ESPN oral history “Those Guys Have All the Fun,” Jann Wenner, the longtime Rolling Stone publisher, described Skipper as a well-liked executive, adept at work and play.
“He was fun to be with, he would sometimes smoke pot with me, and he’s got that wry sense of humor, and that devotion to music,” Wenner said.
Skipper has played a big role in growing ESPN into a brand that was much bigger than a simple cable network, and his fingerprints could be found on almost everything ESPN undertook. Despite revenue concerns and subscriptions losses, which has resulted in hundreds of layoffs the past couple of years, Skipper committed the network to billions of dollars in rights fees, entering into long-term agreements with Major League Baseball, the NBA, the WNBA, the College Football Playoff, the U.S. Open tennis tournament, several major college conferences — the ACC, Big 12, Big 10, Southeastern Conference, American Athletic Conference and Mountain West — as well as the Rose, Sugar and Orange Bowls.
“We think those rights are the greatest assets we have, which allows us to navigate any environment,” Skipper explained at a 2016 conference. “We are going to be able to use those rights to continue to launch new businesses, create new platforms, new content and continue to grow.”
All cable networks have been dealing with shrinking subscription numbers, as viewing habits change and consumers increasingly cut the cord and eschew traditional cable packages. But ESPN has been especially hit hard, losing more than 13 million subscribers from its peak of 100.13 million households in 2011. The lost revenue, coupled with steadily escalating sports-rights fees, has forced the network to lay off more than 500 employees over the past two years.
“I think ESPN has struggled with its future for several years now,” said Rich Greenfield, a media analyst with BTIG Research. “SportsCenter has really lost its way and ESPN has suffered meaningful ratings declines as it faces an increasingly fragmented world of sports, new and information. The timing of this is particularly interesting just given the fact that Disney just landed the largest acquisition in its history last week, much of it tied to sports.”
ESPN employees were surprised by the news, and there had been no public hints that change was afoot. Just last week Skipper appeared at a conference in New York, discussing the network’s future and detailing some of the plans for ESPN Plus, an over-the-top service that’s launching soon and aims to reach consumers who don’t necessarily have a traditional cable subscription. ESPN also is poised to benefit from Disney’s deal last week to acquire a massive package of 21st Century Fox assets, which included Fox Sports Regional Networks, a collection of 18 cable channels that are broadcast to local subscribers across the country.
“Disney believes in the power of sports and last week was a doubling down on the power of sports,” Greenfield said. “But here they are, just about to launch direct-to-consumer for an ESPN spin-off product, buying [regional sports networks], buying Sky Sports, buying Star Sports, it’s just a troubling time to have no leadership.”
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