Moody's: Disney unchanged

Moody's Investors Service said that ESPN's recently announced deal with the National Football League to extend its contract for "Monday Night Football" and other NFL content through 2021 for substantially higher rights fees will not impact the credit ratings of parent Walt Disney Co. (A2 senior unsecured rating).

"ESPN will manage the increasing costs with greater exploitation of the NFL rights, raise ad rates and try to negotiate moderately higher carriage fees from pay TV providers," stated Neil Begley, a senior vice president at Moody's.

From a qualitative brand standpoint, the agency said it believes that in order to ensure that the cable network remains the most important and profitable network television brand in the sports genre, continued investments in sports programming are essential.

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