Weeks shy of its 46th anniversary, ESPN is on the doorstep of what by all accounts is a seminal occurrence in its history — the official launch of its new direct-to-consumer platform.
Starting this Thursday, users will be able to access the 12 linear ESPN networks and more than 47,000 live events without a traditional pay television subscription. In a cord cutting world, ESPN is operating on parallel paths and recognizes the importance of the MVPD ecosystem through which it currently has approximately 61 million subscribers.
“We’re going to evaluate ourselves based on the totality of people, fans, subscribing to ESPN, and that’s across the traditional ecosystem, MVPDs and digital MVPDs, those who access us directly, those who access us through a bundle,” ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro said at an event Tuesday. “We’re going to look at the totality of subscribers, and then on top of that, we’re going to continue to track closely engagement within the ESPN App because… ultimately the goal is to drive all subscribers to the ESPN App.”
Leading into this new era, the company has been active in the media rights marketplace through deals with the NBA, SEC and College Football Playoff. Earlier in the month, ESPN reached a series of agreements with the National Football League that, pending regulatory approval, would expand their relationship beyond live game broadcasts. Under the terms of the agreement, ESPN would own and operate NFL Network, acquire distribution rights for the NFL RedZone channel and add other league media assets in exchange for a 10% equity stake in the company.
“We are very excited, of course, about our expanded NFL relationship and think this is just the beginning,” said Rosalyn Durant, ESPN executive vice president of programming and acquisitions. “There will be more great things to come.”
“Yes, it requires government regulatory approval,” added Burke Magnus, ESPN president of content. “There’s a due diligence element of it that hasn’t happened yet. We have to unpack exactly what the NFL Network is beyond what we know just from being viewers, so that’s the work that’s going to happen over the next six months to a year.”
ESPN has been acquiring additional content for the streaming platform, including plans to stream five out-of-market preseason games this Saturday and a licensing agreement to integrate NFL content into aspects of the app. The company also acquired rights to broadcast WWE premium live events starting in 2026 under a five-year deal reportedly worth more than $1.6 billion.
In addition, the company is said to be nearing an agreement to purchase the MLB.TV out-of-market streaming package, according to a report by Kendall Baker of Yahoo Sports on Tuesday night. ESPN and MLB agreed to mutually opt out of the final three years of their media rights agreement prior to the start of the regular season. Pitaro has for months, even years, publicly and privately stated ESPN’s interest in local MLB rights.
“We are having what I’ve said is healthy conversations with [MLB],” Pitaro said Tuesday. “Nothing to announce today, but we’re very interested in baseball in general, but also local content.”
(Photo by Phil Ellsworth / ESPN Images)
Aside from purchasing a standalone subscription, users can bundle the ESPN DTC Unlimited tier with Disney+ and Hulu for $29.99 per month in the first year. Outside of The Walt Disney Company portfolio, ESPN Unlimited will be available to bundle with NFL+ Premium for $39.99 per month beginning on Wednesday, Sept. 3, and with Fox One for the same price starting on Thursday, Oct. 2. More bundling opportunities are currently being considered for ESPN DTC, and there is interest for potential ingest within the ESPN App to avoid use of third-party applications.
“Our vision is once the fan comes to ESPN, there will be even more available,” Durant said, “and so that’s where we believe we can be a solution for local and we can be a solution for other streaming partners is if the sports fan first thinks, ‘I’m looking for great sports content. Where do I come to? I come to ESPN.'”
Pitaro acknowledged that ESPN is positioning the direct-to-consumer platform for long-term growth and that the company is not judging itself from the opening weekend. The product launch arrives concurrent with the kickoff of college football, which includes a premier interconference matchup between Ohio State and Texas on Saturday, Aug. 30 that will be preceded by Lee Corso‘s final episode of “College GameDay.”
In addition to the usual suite of ESPN studio programs such as “Get Up,” “First Take” and “NFL Live,” the direct-to-consumer platform will be airing episodes of “The Rich Eisen Show” starting on Tuesday, Sept. 2. Magnus has been involved in licensing programming for the company to air on its platforms, including the forthcoming TNT Sports studio show “Inside the NBA” with Ernie Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal, Charles Barkley and Kenny “The Jet” Smith. The network licensed 235 episodes of “The Pat McAfee Show” per year in 2023, and it has been airing across linear and digital outlets.
“I think ‘The Pat McAfee Show’ is a perfect example of when something’s great outside our platform and we bring it on to our platform, we don’t want to change it because we want it for what it was,” Magnus said. “It was great and is great, so anyway, we’re trying to stamp down this notion that we’re, in those circumstances, getting things to change them. We’re not. We’re getting things to get the greatness that already exists.”
Beyond the content, the enhanced app will include features that are increasingly becoming essential for streaming live sports — a “Catch Up to Live” option to parse through what happened previously; the ability to toggle between a variety of categories, such as stats and key plays; and perhaps unique to ESPN, a side pane that incorporates ESPN BET, allowing users to view bets that they have placed along with live odds. There will also be an ESPN Fantasy tab showcasing team and player performance, and a “Shop” tab facilitating merchandise browsing and purchases without leaving the app.
“An incredible amount of engineering and re-engineering went into making this happen so that we can have unified systems and platforms that now power all of the ESPN streaming ecosystem,” Adam Smith, chief product and technology officer of Disney Entertainment and ESPN, said in a presentation. “One of the things that we’re excited about is this positions us really well as we move to a unified app experience.”
A multiview feature will be curated by the programming team on all platforms with the exception of Apple TV, which has had the feature for several years and allows for customization. The ESPN App will offer a “StreamCenter” experience as well that permits fans to use their phones as a second screen while watching live events. In order to prevent spoilers from delays, users can sync statistics and alerts to the live game feed itself. It should be noted that users can have up to five concurrent streams at one time through the ESPN App.
ESPN is leveraging artificial intelligence to create personalized editions of “SportsCenter” featuring highlights, news, analysis and top plays. Gary Striewski, Christine Williamson, Hannah Storm and Omar Raja are anchoring the presentations utilizing AI-generated commentary.
The content offering underscores a Disney thesis to keep the technology in the background and bring storytelling to the center of the experience, and hundreds of segments on a daily basis will be produced and packaged specifically for users. This will exist within the ‘Verts’ panel, a new vertical video hub immersed in the core product navigation of the ESPN App that features a feed of shortform clips.
“We can slice and dice ‘SportsCenter’ on a highlight-by-highlight basis now, kind of like we already do to some degree, but now all of that becomes a part of your ‘Vert’ feed, which again, isn’t revolutionary in its execution,” Magnus said. “But I think the fact that it’s inside our platform and keeps people engaged in the ESPN App in a way that they’re used to, whether it’s Reels or on TikTok or anything else, is a big innovation driver.”
Part of the value proposition in the ‘Verts’ feed is bringing engagement back to the ESPN App rather than generating a majority of engagement away from the platform. The proprietary data that ESPN will garner through the direct-to-consumer app will yield a greater understanding of its fanbase and assist to improve personalization and other recommendations. ESPN has allowed users to customize different facets of its app for several years, but the company is taking a step forward in this regard.
“The promise of direct-to-consumer is the data,” Pitaro said. “It’s the ability to understand the user and to personalize [the] right content to the right user at the right time. That’s the driving force behind these two initiatives — making our products available direct-to-consumer and enhancing the app. We want more access to the sports fan so that we can deliver on the promise of personalization.”
Disney+ first introduced an ESPN tile to its streaming service last December that provided access to content offered on ESPN+, which is being reclassified to “ESPN Select” as of Thursday. Concurrent with the expanded direct-to-consumer offering, Disney+ is now offering the full ESPN suite of content for subscribers to the bundle. The brand hub will include a personalized algorithm that showcases user-preferred teams, and relevant games are going to appear in the header for quick access.
“It also culminates a multi-year journey in unifying the Disney ad platform so that now, you can buy at one time across Disney+, Hulu and ESPN,” Smith explained. “A major advertiser can plan, they can buy, they can optimize and measure all in one place, all at once. Major, major step forward that we’re really excited for.”
As ESPN embarks on its next era, it will be accompanied by a comprehensive marketing campaign to draw awareness and educate users on the changes. The company is working with Lyft in New York and Los Angeles, taking part in a pop-up merchandise collaboration with Complex in the SoHo neighborhood and will also feature content on Samsung TVs in Best Buy stores around the country. Even the MTA New York City Subway is custom-wrapping an E-line train with branding and messaging — including custom voiceovers from Stephen A. Smith.
“We’ve always said that ESPN is about serving the sports fan anytime, anywhere,” ESPN executive vice president of creative and marketing Tina Thornton said in a presentation Tuesday. “Now, we’re doing it in ways that are smarter, faster and more personal. We can’t wait for you and the rest of our fans to experience this.”
(Photo by Phil Ellsworth / ESPN Images)
While ESPN had been planning its direct-to-consumer experience for years, it also took part in a joint streaming venture with Fox Corporation and Warner Bros. Discovery that ultimately did not launch. Venu Sports would have granted users access to content from across the three companies for $42.99 per month, but a preliminary injunction obtained by FuboTV impeded its launch ahead of last football season. The companies decided to discontinue the project in January, a few days after the media companies reached a settlement with Fubo that included an aggregate cash payment of $220 million.
“We were focused on building our own direct-to-consumer experience in parallel with Venu,” Pitaro said. “The Venu engineers, the software developers, the backend engineers, they were not brought over to ESPN or Disney. We didn’t need it. We fully intended to go to launch the direct-to-consumer experience and the enhanced app with or without them.”
Pitaro and his colleagues at ESPN are anticipating the launch of ESPN DTC and the enhanced app on Thursday as the media ecosystem progresses with altered consumption habits and new technology. As Pitaro has stated previously, ESPN is entering “the first inning” with these new products and will roll out new features on a monthly basis. In the end though, the company is looking to continue fulfilling its mission statement and function as a trusted destination for sports fans.
“I heard someone say recently, ‘Your level of investment equals your level of expectations,'” Pitaro explained. “Well, I can tell you that both are very high for us. Again, our mission remains, ‘Serve the sports fan anytime, anywhere,’ and as Bob [Iger] said, continuing our evolution as the preeminent sports destination, and this week, we’re delivering in a way only ESPN can.”
