◼ BUSINESS Bloomberg Businessweek August 3, 202014
THEBOTTOMLINE India’sBollywoodfilmstudiosannuallychurn
out the world’s largest number of movies. Pandemic restrictions are
putting their business model to the test.● With college sports in flux because of Covid,
the network could lose millions in ad revenueESPN Goes on
The Injured List
You almost feel sorry for Mark Packer and Wes
Durham. The two veteran broadcasters have what
might seem like dream jobs, chatting about col-
lege sports for two hours every morning for the
Walt Disney Co.-owned ESPN empire. These days
they air their show separately from their respective
homes, and you can hear the frustration in their
voices when yet another athletic league cancels its
season or a high-profile school delays its start date
because of the coronavirus.
“We’ve talked about this almost ad nauseam,”
Packer told his colleague after football powerhouse
Clemson University said its students won’t return
to campus until late September. If students aren’t
even able to walk across a quad to class, “how cantheprotagonist’sprofessionafterhefound“a
giantlocation”thatcouldaccommodateseveral
differentshootingsetups,allowinghimtosave
somemoney.Theproduceralsopredictsspecial
effectswillnowbeneededinotheractionfilms
whererewritingis impossible,especiallyforbat-
tlescenes,despiteIndiahavinga vastsupplyof
cheapextraswhotraditionallyhavebeenavail-
ableforsuchproductions.
It’snotclearhowtheextracostsandlackofcin-
emaoutletswillaffectBollywood’sfinances.The
typicalBollywoodproductionis a money-spinner,
witheventhefilms’musicfarmedoutforstage
showsthatpayroyalties,whilestarsenjoythe
glamour—andproductendorsements—thattradi-
tionallyaccompanybighitsintheaters.
Just how long thepandemic-spurred pro-
ductionchangeswilllastisuncertain.“That’sa
million-dollar question,” Balki says. “Filmmakers
will have to lean on streaming platforms. Producers
will have to be happier with lesser profits, and
actors with lesser payouts. At least for now.”
�Bhuma Shrivastava and Nikhil Patwardhan, with
P R Sanjaiyouhavea footballgame,a baseballgame,atennis
match, whatever it happens to be? That’s a very dif-
ficult question.”
It’s one echoing throughout the ESPN oper-
ation these days. No major media company has
bet more on college sports than ESPN. The com-
pany airs college games on 10 different channels,
including the ABC broadcast network and its ESPN+
streaming service. It runs specific networks for the
Southeastern and Atlantic Coast conferences and
for the University of Texas. Last season more than
half of all college football viewers tuned in to one
of ESPN’s outlets.
But this year the season is completely up in the
air. Some conferences, including the Ivy League,
have canceled fall sports entirely. The Pac-12 and
Big Ten have eliminated games with schools out-
side of their conference, so they can limit traveland start their seasons later. That’s squashed pop-
ular matchups such as Ohio State vs. Oregon and
Penn State vs. Virginia Tech.
The college crisis comes as ESPN is benefiting
from the return of professional sports, after months
of airing old games, Korean baseball, documenta-
ries, and an Eagles concert. The National Basketball
Association and Major League Soccer are even play-
ing their Covid-shortened seasons at the company’s
Wide World of Sports facility near Orlando.
ESPN, which declined to make any of its exec-
utives available for this article, said the games
canceled so far have mostly involved those on its
online channels, or those coming from conferences
shared with other broadcasters such as Fox Corp.
So the lost games on ESPN could be fewer than it
seems, it said. The network could also move up
lesser matchups from its online outlets to run in
place of canceled games.
Still, many decisions about the upcoming sea-
son have yet to be made. Unlike the professional
leagues, which have one central commissioner
and a relatively small number of teams, control of▲ Clemson’s Memorial
Stadium