ESPN parent company Disney has plenty of optimism for the next year, despite rising economic headwinds, but the near term is still somewhat choppy for the sports media giant.

Disney said Wednesday that it grew revenue 7% to $23.6 billion in its second fiscal quarter that ended March 29, and increased its operating income by 15% to $4.4 billion. Perhaps more importantly, the company also said it is raising its guidance for fiscal 2025, with adjusted earnings projected to rise 16%, and by 18% within its sports operations.

That stance notably differs from several other companies, including some with significant sports ties, that have paused or lowered their financial guidance in the wake of a tariff-fueled trade war initiated by U.S. President Donald Trump. 

“Following an excellent first half of the year, we have a lot more to look forward to,” said Disney CEO Bob Iger, referring in part to the forthcoming debut of ESPN’s direct-to-consumer streaming service.

ESPN, however, had a more mixed report for the latest quarter. Domestic revenue rose 7% to $4.2 billion, but operating income fell 17% to $648 million, with earnings particularly hit by increased rights and production costs for the newly expanded College Football Playoff, as well as the timing of the 2024 NFL regular-season schedule. The network additionally took a write-down in the quarter related to the shuttering of Venu Sports in January. Disney previously said those costs would be about $50 million. 

The ESPN+ streaming service, meanwhile, ended the quarter with 24.1 million paid subscribers, down 3% from the end of 2024 and equal to the level it reached in mid-2022. ESPN+ has been essentially flat in subscribers since then, suggesting it may have hit a ceiling as more sports content shows up in Disney+. The advertising market there, and on the other Disney streaming services, also faces greater competition, though ESPN overall saw a 29% bump in domestic ad sales during the quarter. 

“We continue, as we go into the upfront season, to see robust demand for advertising,” said Disney senior EVP and CFO Hugh Johnston. “One place that continues to be a bit more challenged is on the DTC side, not driven by demand, but driven by supply as we have new entrants into the marketplace.”

Flagship Talk

Disney also continues aggressive preparation for the ESPN DTC streaming service, currently carrying the working name of “Flagship.” The actual name of the service, as well as pricing, will be revealed next week—which is also a frenetic period in which each of the major U.S. media companies make upfront presentations to advertisers. 

“The plan would be to basically be somewhat agnostic from a subscriber perspective so that we can still do our best to preserve the [linear] multichannel ecosystem,” Iger said. “At the same time, obviously, we want to grow our DTC business. The difference is that the ESPN linear service, if that’s all the consumer chooses to watch, will not have the bells and whistles and those additional features that the DTC service will have.”

Disney shares surged by 11% in Wednesday trading amid the bullish outlook, closing at $102.09 per share and helping to recoup losses seen over the past two months amid the tariff disputes.

Utah Hockey Club has chosen the Mammoth as its permanent nickname, ending a long and winding renaming process that included several setbacks. 

The NHL team said that Mammoth emerged as the clear favorite in final fan surveying that also included the options of keeping Utah Hockey Club and the Outlaws, itself a late replacement for the discarded option of Wasatch. The change to Mammoth arrives in advance of next month’s draft, when Utah will pick fourth, and will begin in earnest with the 2025–2026 season. 

Team colors of rock black, salt white, and mountain blue will remain intact. The away white jersey will have many similarities to last season, including the use of a “Utah” wordmark, but a new Mammoth primary logo now assumes a prominent role. So, too, does a new team rallying cry and social media hashtag of “Tusks Up.”

The selection of Mammoth arrives less than 13 months after the franchise first relocated from Arizona to Salt Lake City, and 11 months after it chose Utah Hockey Club as a temporary nickname, a timetable significantly shorter than many other pro team naming efforts. The choice will be formally announced Wednesday morning by owner Ryan Smith and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, and merchandise sales will begin immediately after that.

“The community chose the Utah Mammoth brand, and it stands as a symbol of who we are, where we came from, and the unstoppable force we’re building together,” Smith and his wife, Ashley, said in a statement. 

During a four-stage fan vote amassing more than 850,000 votes, Yeti previously emerged as a heavy favorite and had been widely expected to be the final selection. The team, however, ran into trademark issues involving the popular insulated drinkware and cooler company, particularly around the usage of the name on clothing, and ultimately moved on from that option.

Mammoth, which refers to the Ice Age mammoths that roamed the land that is now Utah, had been more recently expected after a leak last week of the name on the team’s official YouTube page. 

The Mammoth is also used by the National Lacrosse League’s franchise in Colorado. Smith Entertainment Group said there have been conversations with Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, which owns that team, and there are no conflicts. The situation there is not unlike names such as Giants, Jets, Panthers, and Rangers used across multiple pro leagues. 

The Mammoth name also arrives as Smith Entertainment Group has begun a large-scale renovation of the Delta Center, the downtown Salt Lake City arena home to both the hockey team and the NBA’s Jazz. The project will allow attending fans at the arena, originally designed for basketball, to have unobstructed views of both sports. 

There is yet another new layer of Tom Brady’s complex post-playing career to dissect. 

Brady, a minority owner of the Raiders and Fox’s No. 1 NFL analyst, claimed he wasn’t involved in Las Vegas in passing on drafting Shedeur Sanders, who is a close friend of his.

“I wasn’t a part of any evaluation process,” Brady said Tuesday on the Impaulsive podcast when asked why Sanders slipped to the fifth round.

Brady’s statement seems to contradict previous comments from Raiders owner Mark Davis and GM John Spytek.

In January, Davis said, “Bringing in Tom Brady was bringing in somebody that was on the football side that I had been lacking having here in the organization.” After the draft, Spytek told The Athletic, “When we are looking at quarterbacks, we’d have to be fools not to involve him.”

The Raiders traded for presumptive starting quarterback Geno Smith this offseason and drafted North Dakota State quarterback Cam Miller in the sixth round. 

Brady also said that he texted Sanders after the NFL Draft to encourage him about his future. Before Brady was an owner of the Raiders, he worked out with Sanders multiple times in previous offseasons.

TV Tom

Brady also opened up about the challenges of his broadcasting job with Fox, which became a major talking point during the NFL playoffs, as Brady called the games of coaches he was interviewing for the open Raiders position.

“You’ve got to entertain, you’ve got to teach people, and you’ve got to talk about the offense, and the defense, or the coach, or the general manager, or the owner, the ref,” Brady said Tuesday. “You’ve got to have an opinion on the call.
So, there’s an art to it, and I’m working my way through the art part.”

The NFL instituted special broadcasting restrictions for Brady, given his role as a minority owner of the Raiders. Brady is entering the second season of a 10-year, $375 million deal with Fox.