Filing: Disney now owns 100% of streaming tech company BAMTech after paying $900M for MLB's 15% stake in November 2022; Disney acquired a majority stake in 2017
Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter : Tweets: @injuryexpert See also Mediagazer Tweets: Will Carroll / @injuryexpert : I'm not good at math but 900m/30 is an extra $60m in found money per team. That includes teams like Oakland and Baltimore who's payroll was barely north of $60m, period. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/ ... See also Mediagazer
Context & Ripple Effects
This closes a six-year build. MLB spun the streaming unit out in 2015 at a valuation above $3B, handing the NHL up to 10% equity in the new BAMTech; Disney then bought in with a 33% stake for $1B in 2016 before paying $1.58B for a further 42% in 2017 to take control. The $900M buyout of MLB's remaining 15% implies a valuation roughly double the 2015 spin-out figure.
The full-ownership move matters because BAMTech is the infrastructure under Disney's direct-to-consumer push — the same unit Disney's own SEC filing showed contributed a $469M loss in fiscal 2018, part of the $1B+ in streaming losses that year. Consolidating 100% puts all of that P&L, and all of the tech roadmap, solely on Disney's books.
First-order effects
- MLB pockets $900M from selling its last 15% of BAMTech, cash the league can distribute across its 30 clubs — meaningful found money for low-payroll teams like Oakland and Baltimore.
- Disney gains sole control of the streaming technology stack behind Disney+, ending any minority-shareholder dynamics with MLB over a core piece of its DTC infrastructure.
Second-order effects
- MLB exits ownership of the tech it originally built, converting a strategic asset into a one-time cash distribution — and losing any upside if BAMTech's value keeps climbing under Disney.
- Other leagues that took equity in the 2015 spin-out structure, like the NHL's 10%, now have a cleaner template: sell streaming-tech stakes to the media companies that depend on them, at prices set by Disney's own buyout.
Third-order effects
- The pattern points toward sports leagues treating technology arms as monetizable assets rather than permanent holdings, with media consolidators absorbing full ownership of the infrastructure their streaming services run on.
- As Disney absorbs 100% of both BAMTech's costs and its returns, streaming losses and gains concentrate on one balance sheet — raising the stakes on whether owned infrastructure outperforms licensed alternatives over the long run.
The trend: Sports leagues are cashing out of the streaming-technology ventures they spun out in the mid-2010s, consolidating that infrastructure under the media companies that now depend on it.