ESPN Australia and New Zealand has revealed plans to bring its ESPN television advertising sales business in house, joining the rest of its sales operation.
The announcement follows the formation of the Disney|ESPN Media Sales and Partnerships group in 2017, which was established to create a "singular point of contact" across all Disney and ESPN assets.
Beginning 1 October this year, the group will become the single representative for all Walt Disney Company advertising assets in Australia and New Zealand.
ESPN’s TV ad sales business has previously been represented by Seven West Media.
“The timing is right for us to bring ad sales in house. We’ve seen immense growth, particularly with the important demographic of 18-39 year old men, largely due to growing interest in the NBA and NFL and other US sport," Disney|ESPN Ad Sales and Partnerships head Nik Weber says.
"We have a phenomenal run of programming coming up, with the US Open on August 28, the NFL season kicking off on September 7, and the NBA tipping off on October 17."
"Seven West Media have been fantastic partners, and we’re excited to continue working with them on events such as X Games Sydney in October. However, after integrating our sales teams last year, it was increasingly important for the business to be able to offer brands and advertisers a truly complete offering in a single relationship."
The multi-platform portfolio now includes ESPN TV Networks in Australia (ESPN, ESPN2) and New Zealand (ESPN), digital properties ESPN.com, ESPNcricinfo, ESPNfootytips (websites and apps), as well as Disney TV Network (Disney Channel, Disney XD, Disney Junior, Foxtel Movies Disney) and the Disney Digital Network.
AdNews has approached Seven for comment.
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