For the second-straight day, Disney has announced a new direct-to-subscriber streaming service that will include the ESPN television channels.
Disney CEO Bob Iger said on CNBC Wednesday that the company will launch a direct-to-subscriber platform consisting of ESPN’s linear channels in time for the 2025 football season. The long-rumored service will be only the second direct-to-subscriber platform featuring ESPN channels, as it was announced just a day earlier that the networks will be included in a joint streaming venture with Warner Bros. Discovery and Fox that will launch later this year.
Iger contrasted the joint venture service, which he termed “really a channel bundle,” with what will be a feature-rich, “much more immersive” ESPN-specific app that includes “integrated betting, fantasy, much more personalization, customization, probably shopping in some form, much deeper in statistics … kind of the sports lovers’ delight.”
Between the two streaming services, the existing streaming MVPDs and basic cable, the linear ESPN networks will presumably be available at four different price points by the end of next year. Currently, the cheapest option to stream ESPN is Sling Orange at $40 per month, a tier that also includes the Warner Bros. Discovery channels, but not those of NBC or Fox. One would assume that an ESPN-only service would cost less, while the ESPN-Fox-WBD option will cost more.
The ESPN-specific service will be available as a standalone product and, as announced in the Charter-ESPN deal last year, as an add-on through Charter’s Spectrum cable.
Overall, all of the biggest sports broadcasters — Disney, Fox, WBD, Comcast (NBC) and Paramount (CBS) — will have direct-to-subscriber options as soon as this year, and in the case of ESPN, multiple options by the end of next year.
