The Ringer is Live

The Ringer could be turning a profit. If it is, it would be entirely from podcasts. They might be bringing in more from ad revenue than a lot of people would imagine.

At the same time, subtract out costs from revenue, and I doubt the business is a huge money maker. If it is profitable (it is an if, not a definite), it likely isn't throwing off much of a dividend to anyone. I thought this at the time Simmons left ESPN, and I strongly suspect it is true. Simmons wasn't going to do any better financially for himself than what he was getting from ESPN -- not from another website and not from anything he started up on his own. I'd imagine he is doing worse in terms of take-home pay on his own, putting aside the ill-conceived deal HBO gave him and whatever he took from it before the contract was scratched. The Ringer is dependent on his name, so in essence anything he pays himself is still akin to him being a hired hand and collecting a salary for the worth of his name. The tradeoff for collecting less personally (if I am right about that), is that he gets whatever satisfaction comes from doing his own thing and being his own boss. Maybe the trade off is worth it to him. But when he left ESPN, I was pretty sure he was never going to get more money from another website than he was able to earn working for ESPN, and I strongly suspect it has played out that way for him.

I wish it wasn't a private company and we could see a balance sheet, because I am curious about how it does. Subscription-based things are in favor right now, but it is a more difficult way to succeed, because there is a direct link between what you are supplying in terms of content and whether the demand is there. Produce something people will pay for, or you don't have a business. The Ringer relies on ad revenue. If it is like most online content, it isn't earning bubkus -- except for podcasts for which there are ad dollars if you have listeners, and that is a big thing for his site. The podcasts are probably carrying the site, but is it enough to make for a profit, and if so, much of a profit?

 

HBO was an original investor in The Ringer. That made it a partial owner, not the owner. My question. ... I never saw anything laying out their interest, so does anyone know exactly what their stake is? And does anyone know if HBO unloaded that stake after it cancelled Simmons' show? i.e. -- do they still have a stake, and if so, how big is it exactly?

 

So I can see the show and an investment in the website not being connected. I guess there is no way to know how big their stake is. If they have sold it (or if they sell it in the future), there would be no way to really know unless they said it publicly.

 

I actually can't find anything via Google about 1) What kind of stake HBO has. I mean, I assumed in my earlier post it is an equity stake, but is that true? No specifics were ever disclosed that I can see. 2) Is HBO the only investor? If they are, I would have been wrong. They might actually own the site. I may have spoken out of school. If they aren't the only investor, who are the other investors? I am assuming that Simmons wouldn't have done it without having an ownership stake. But there is no way to know for sure.

Does anyone know anything more?