Afternoon Edition |
August 20, 2025 |
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ESPN knows its future hinges on a decreased reliance on the cable bundle. The company is stacking its chips on a DTC service, a revamped app, and a wide range of deals. Here’s what we know about its plans, which span from broader streaming rights to an in-app TikTok-esque feature.
—Eric Fisher, David Rumsey, and Colin Salao
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ESPN and parent company Disney, after years of effort and planning, have finally cleared the major hurdle of bringing a direct-to-consumer product to market. Next up are two more obstacles, perhaps as complex, if not more so: getting people to understand the streaming product and sign up, and understanding how well the large-scale strategic pivot performs.
The revamped ESPN app will debut Thursday, offering live streaming of all 12 of its networks, as well as a deep array of enhanced interactive features that arrive with the DTC product. A massive corporate priority for Disney, the new-look app, carrying a marketing slogan of “All of ESPN. All in one place,” will feature:
- An enhanced second-screen experience that will include live statistics, alerts, fantasy content, shopping, and integration with ESPN Bet.
- A personalized daily version of SportsCenter, tailored to each user’s favorite teams and leagues.
- A TikTok-style vertical video experience, called Verts, that will feature short-form videos.
- A deeper integration with Disney+, which started last December, in which the full ESPN content lineup is available for bundle subscribers on that flagship product.
- It’s also possible MLB content could be added as part of a reworked rights deal currently in negotiation between ESPN and the league.
“We’re at the verge of another industry-shaping moment,” said ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro of the DTC debut and rebuilt app.
A Bundle of Bundles
As announced in May, the new-look ESPN will feature an unbundled price of $29.99 per month. That’s hardly the only way for users to access the expanded service, though. There is also a broader bundle including ad-based versions of sister properties Disney+ and Hulu, also carrying a promotional price of $29.99 per month.
There are additional bundles between ESPN and its new equity partner, the NFL, that bring in NFL+ Premium, and another that combines ESPN with Fox One, debuting Thursday as well. Pitaro also says ESPN remains keenly interested in striking more partnerships.
Existing TV-based subscribers, meanwhile, can also authenticate into the expanded ESPN features. There will be some minor variances, though, in the amount of content available depending on Disney’s carriage deal with each distributor.
With all these different ways to subscribe to ESPN and then access the additional features, network executives acknowledge there is a significant lift to help consumers navigate all the choices. Because of that, marketing is expected to shift soon from a focus on the huge array of available content to accessing it.
“We recognize the complexity of this. We recognize that we need to simplify it for all of our fans,” said ESPN EVP of creative studio and marketing Tina Thornton. “It’s teaching not just what we’re doing but how you get to it.”
For more on ESPN’s new direct-to-consumer launch and revamped app, read the full story here.
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Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports
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As LIV Golf continues to shake up the men’s professional game, the PGA Tour is turning to the man who revitalized MLB to change golf’s future.
Longtime MLB executive Theo Epstein, who was largely responsible for the creation of the pitch clock, will highlight the newly formed Future Competition Committee, new PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp announced Wednesday ahead of this week’s Tour Championship in Atlanta.
Epstein, now a senior advisor at Fenway Sports Group, has been intertwined with the PGA Tour since the Strategic Sports Group, which FSG is part of, invested $1.5 billion into the Tour last year. But this move will mark his strongest involvement yet, as Rolapp seeks to bring in learnings from other professional leagues.
“It’s one reason why I asked Theo Epstein to participate in this,” Rolapp said. “He clearly has a track record in other sports including baseball and has wrestled with these same competitive issues, and I think we can learn from his experience.”
Epstein will be joined on the new committee by FSG principal John Henry, PGA Tour board chairman Joe Gorder, and six players: Woods, Patrick Cantlay, Adam Scott, Camilo Villegas, Maverick McNealy, and Keith Mitchell. “It is aimed at a holistic relook of how we compete on the Tour,” Rolapp said. “That is inclusive of regular season, postseason, and offseason.”
One of the biggest issues facing the PGA Tour’s current competition model is bringing together the best players more often. Next season, the PGA Tour will add a ninth $20 million signature event, but top LIV Golf and PGA Tour golfers only face each other four times a year at the major championships. Slow pace of play and TV viewer complaints of heavy commercial loads are also likely areas of improvement for the PGA Tour.
Rolapp said the new committee has not yet met, but he would like to start implementing changes “as soon as we can.”
NFL Learnings
As former chief media and business officer at the NFL, Rolapp said he “didn’t cheer for teams, I cheered for television ratings.”
That mindset carries over to the PGA Tour (subbing players for teams), and Rolapp believes competitive parity will be key. “Everybody wants to go into an event not knowing who’s going to win,” he said. “At my old job, I think we obsessed about these things. Other than the NFL, I think golf is the closest thing that I’ve seen that competitive parity. In my old world, we could pick five teams we think are going to win the Super Bowl, and I think we’d probably both be wrong. I think golf has similar characteristics, so I think that’s a strength we’re going to lean in to.”
Rolapp was announced as PGA Tour CEO in June, but his first official day as PGA Tour CEO was Aug. 4.
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The fines keep coming for Sophie Cunningham as she continues to speak out about WNBA officiating.
The Indiana Fever guard said on her podcast Show Me Something, released Tuesday, that she has received a third fine from the WNBA following her comments on the officiating around Dallas Wings star Paige Bueckers from a previous podcast episode.
“I’m officially 3-for-3 on being fined by the WNBA,” Cunningham said. “They didn’t like my comments on Paige Bueckers.”
Cunningham’s comments on WNBA officiating came during an episode of her podcast released last Wednesday, the day after Bueckers and the Wings beat the Fever in Indiana.
“I love Paige to death … but those refs were giving her every freaking whistle last night. You literally couldn’t touch her. That shit is so annoying to me. And if you’re going to do that, give it to our guards. I just hate the inconsistency,” Cunningham said.
Cunningham, who is out for the remainder of the season following a torn MCL sustained Sunday, did not reveal the cost of her third fine. She previously said that she was fined $500 for criticizing refs on a TikTok in mid-July, then penalized an additional $1,500 for comments made during the first episode of her podcast.
The six-year WNBA veteran previously predicted she would continue to receive fines, but she said the low figures were not going to dissuade her from making comments.
“You fining me $500 is not going to do shit. … And then I’ll get fined for that, and then I’ll get fined for this, and the fines will continue,” Cunningham said during her podcast’s inaugural episode in July.
The WNBA did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said at the All-Star Game in July that the league continues to work on its officiating.
“We hear the concerns. We take that input. Every play is reviewed. Spend hours and hours and hours. Obviously, we use that then to follow up with officials, training,” Engelbert said.
Cunningham is on a one-year deal worth $100,000—though she is likely making a lot through her opportunities off the court, including her podcast. Front Office Sports broke the news that Cunningham signed a deal with Colin Cowherd’s digital media company, The Volume, to launch her podcast.
She has also received several endorsement deals from brands like Ring and Arby’s, and she is one of the 10 most-followed WNBA players on Instagram.
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We are just a day away from ESPN’s new highly anticipated $29.99 a month direct-to-consumer streaming service, which ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro calls “industry shaping.” FOS newsletter writer Eric Fisher got a first look at the new service and breaks down all the features, including a TikTok-style vertical video experience called Verts, as well as a personalized daily version of SportsCenter, tailored to each user’s favorite teams and leagues.
Meanwhile, skateboarding legend Tony Hawk tells Baker Machado and Renee Washington that skateboarding hasn’t lost its coolness factor after all these years, saying it’s “hotter than ever.”
Plus, we look at the data behind the women’s sports boom, Anthony Richardson’s future with the Colts, and whether MLB’s Home Run Derby could find a future home on Netflix.
Watch the full episode here.
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Arch Manning ⬆⬇ The Texas quarterback’s future and the timing for an NFL entry remain uncertain, even as his grandfather and former NFL star Archie Manning recently told Texas Monthly that he would be with the Longhorns through 2026. “I don’t know where he got that from,” the younger Manning said. “He texted me to apologize about that. I’m really just taking it day by day right now.”
Valtteri Bottas ⬆ Cadillac has signed the Mercedes reserve Formula One driver as the team’s first driver for its debut next season, according to RacingNews365. The 35-year-old, who has 10 Grand Prix victories, is expected to be officially announced by Cadillac next week. It’s still unclear who the second driver with the U.S.-based team will be, though former Red Bull driver Sergio Pérez is reportedly a strong option.
Anthony Richardson ⬇ Daniel Jones, who signed a one-year, $14 million deal with the Colts in March, was named the team’s starting quarterback Tuesday, leaving the future of Indianapolis’s former top-five pick in flux. Richardson’s agent, Deiric Jackson, told ESPN that his trust in the team is “questionable” following the decision.
Rich Eisen ⬆ The former ESPN anchor and current NFL Network host shone in a celebrated return to SportsCenter late Monday, with the episode averaging 708,000 viewers. That figure is 67% higher than an average 11 p.m. ET episode of SportsCenter, and slightly higher than Eisen’s 2003 finale on the program. With the episode also a qualitative smash, Eisen is set to host future episodes, including one back at ESPN’s Bristol, Conn., headquarters.
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- A Bowling Green football player brought a cat named Pudge to the team’s stadium to boost team morale after his teammate sustained an injury. Check it out.
- Five-time NBA All-Star John Wall announced his retirement Tuesday. He earned nearly $300 million through his 14-year NBA career. Here’s the breakdown.
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 | Jones never played a snap for Minnesota. |
 | The first-place prize money for the winning duo climbed from $200,000 to $1 million.
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