ESPN announced Wednesday that Super Bowl LXI will be simulcast on Disney+ in addition to airing on ABC, ESPN and ESPN Deportes.
The streaming service will have both the English and Spanish-language broadcasts of the game — which is being broadcast on ABC for the first time since 2006 and on ESPN for the first time ever — and will offer the streams in 55 markets internationally, some of which include Brazil, Latin America and South Africa.
The strategy aligns with comments made by Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro on the company’s most recent earnings call, describing live sports as “a fan engagement and ecosystem play” aside from driving viewership.
Aside from the Super Bowl, ESPN will also stream two regular-season “Monday Night Football” games on the platform, including Cowboys-Eagles in Week 7, widely expected to be one of the most viewed games of the NFL season. The second “MNF” simulcast on Disney+ is to be determined.
Earlier in the year, ESPN announced that it would simulcast select college football games on Disney+, which does not require an ESPN subscription to access.
Disney+ is just the latest streaming service to carry the Super Bowl. The game streamed this past season on Peacock, the previous year on Fox-owned Tubi, and three years ago on Paramount+. Coverage will also stream on the ESPN App, which offers feeds of the network’s linear programming.
Austin Karp of Sports Business Journal reported the Disney+ simulcast will be included in the Nielsen-reported figure for the game, as was the case this past year with Peacock (which had previously been measured separately by Adobe Analytics) and two years ago with Tubi.
The Walt Disney Company is currently broadcasting NFL games under a 10-year contract reportedly worth $2.7 billion/year. The league can opt out of the deal following the 2030 season, which concludes with the company airing its next Super Bowl.
