New ESPN Streaming App Marks Major Shift in Disney Strategy

ESPN has finalized its plans for its highly anticipated, direct-to-consumer streaming service, simply calling it “ESPN,” while the Disney-owned company says the project will “redefine our business.”

After considering a variety of other names for the long-planned offering that previously carried a working title of “Flagship,” ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro said, “There’s real power in our four letters.” The service will involve a rebuilt ESPN app, with users then able to buy into the broader video packages. 

An unlimited package, carrying all of ESPN’s networks, will cost $29.99 per month on an unbundled basis, and $35.99 per month when bundled with ad-based versions of sister properties Disney+ and Hulu. An initial promotion, however, will bring that latter cost down to $29.99 per month for the first 12 months. With the new service, ESPN is leaning in to a mantra of “all of ESPN, all in one place” and touting a live portfolio with more than 47,000 annual events. 

“This is going to redefine our business, and it’s going to reflect the innovation that’s been a hallmark of ESPN since its earliest days,” Pitaro said in a press event Tuesday morning.

A specific debut date is still being developed and will be disclosed this summer, but it will be around the start of the 2025 pro and college football seasons. 

The DTC effort, a major priority across ESPN’s corporate parent Disney, is happening as the company is looking to fight an industry-wide decline in linear television subscribers as cord-cutting and cord-nevering accelerate. 

“We’re really looking at the 60 million–plus households [in the U.S.] that are on the sidelines,” Pitaro said, referring to those consumers without any sort of tie to ESPN. “We are platform-agnostic.” 

The ESPN streaming service will include a range of enhanced features, including integration with ESPN Bet, personalization with favorite teams, customized versions of SportsCenter, merchandise sales, and live statistics. 

Streaming Matters

ESPN, meanwhile, will continue to market and sell ESPN+ as a separate offering with that name, in part due to contractual rights commitments with several leagues, both domestically and internationally. The content there will be very similar to what will be available in a select version of the ESPN DTC service costing $11.99 per month.

Going forward, however, the two levels of the new DTC service will be the “priority” for ESPN. To that end, existing ESPN+ subscribers will automatically become subscribers to the more limited version of the new service. Traditional linear subscribers of ESPN will also be able to access all the DTC features through authentication. 

“We are ultimately going to judge ourselves based on the totality of people subscribing to ESPN,” Pitaro said. “We are not going to look at one specific platform. We want to be available across platforms, across price points.”