Daniel Loeb, the manager of Third Point has bought a stake in the entertainment conglomerate Disney and is pushing the company to spin off its sports network ESPN, according to a CNBC report.

Loeb, who started the Third Point hedge fund in 1995 has a history of being an activist investor and in the past two years has been pushing Disney to ramp up its streaming services like Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+.

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In a letter to the CEO of Disney, Bob Chapek, the activist investor encouraged the company to let the ESPN brand become a stand alone entity as opposed to coming under the Disney banner. According to Loeb, the rationale behind such a move would allow the cable sports channel more flexibility in terms of pursuing other business ventures like sports betting, given that it generates significant cash flow for the company. 

“We believe that most arrangements between the two companies can be replicated contractually, in the way eBay spun PayPal while continuing to utilize the product to process payments,” Loeb wrote, according to the CNBC report. 

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ESPN is the sole reason that Disney is leading the pack amongst cable TV businesses. ESPN and ESPN2 combined costs $10 a month. On the other hand, Disney requires that pay-TV providers include ESPN as part of their most popular packages. ESPN+ which is the streaming service provided by Disney has been becoming a stronger platform in the last years as the entertainment conglomerate moves more live games over to the service. 

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In addition to spinning off ESPN, Loeb encouraged Disney to better integrate Hulu into Disney+. According to him, the company should seek to attain Comcast’s entire stake in Hulu before 2024. Comcast and Disney have an agreement where the telecom company will sell its 33% stake in Hulu in two years.

Disney recently reported strong quarterly earnings that beat street estimates, while the media giant topped Netflix on streaming subscribers. The company, however, lowered its longer-term forecast for its Disney+ Hotstar subscribers. It now expects 80 million subscribers by the end of fiscal 2024, against the 100 million projected earlier. 

This announcement comes at the heels of the company losing the streaming rights for the Indian Premier League to Reliance-backed Viacom-18.