After years of being asked how it would respond to the streaming explosion, ESPN is finally unveiling a new direct-to-consumer app designed to offer its clearest answer yet to that existential question.
ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro and other senior Disney and ESPN execs hosted media members at Disney’s corporate headquarters in New York for a demo of the long-gestating new service, which launches Thursday. They sprinkled in a few related announcements at Tuesday’s preview event, including a new bundle with NFL+ launching on Sept. 3, fruit of a major equity deal with the league announced earlier this month.
“Since 1979, we’ve redefined what’s possible in sports media,” Pitaro said. In that nearly half-century of historical context, the streaming venture is an “industry-shaping moment” that is a top priority of Disney CEO Bob Iger, he added. “Fans don’t just want to watch. They want to experience. They want to interact.”
Pitaro reiterated his past assertions that reinforcing the number of total subscribers across linear TV and streaming would be ESPN’s goal, not generating a specific amount of take-up in streaming. Engagement within the app, he continued, would be paramount.
Programming on ESPN+, which launched in 2019 and has grown to 24 million subscribers, will be included in the service with no upcharge. But the main draw is ESPN’s portfolio of 12 linear networks, with additional enticements including an AI-generated personalized version of SportsCenter and enhanced betting, fantasy sports and shopping features.
At an introductory price of $30 a month, the service is near the very top end of the streaming market, so its ultimate traction will come from traditional pay-TV operators helping customers secure authenticated access. Pay-TV subscribers get the full run of the new app at no extra cost.
Today, with distributors selling broadband services and integrating streaming into their bundles, Pitaro said the hope is that the parties will work in harmony. “We’ve been having very, very good conversations with distributors,” Pitaro said.
Disney and No. 1 cable provider Charter Communications led the charge on this in 2023, hammering out a new-model carriage deal after an acrimonious blackout. Thus far, distribution partners like DirecTV, Hulu TV and Fubo have agreed to bundle the newly enhanced ESPN. Still TBD is YouTube TV, whose programming licensing efforts are now overseen by former longtime ESPN and Disney exec Justin Connolly. (His jump to the tech giant has drawn a lawsuit from Disney, with the complaint still pending.)
Execs were asked how they approached the task of educating customers about what’s on the app, what it costs, who can get it for free and how they gain that access. In certain respects, the proposition recalls the challenging rollout a decade ago of TV Everywhere apps operated by programmers, which were kept behind a strictly enforced pay wall by wary distributors.
“We need the distributors , MVPDs, digtal MVPDs to step up and help us with this education,” Pitaro said. “Most important is making sure that the customer has access to their username and password and understanding from us that they, once they have it, once they fire up the ESPN app, they can authenticate and get access to the features and the programming.”
Adam Smith, Chief Product & Technology Officer of Disney Entertainment and ESPN, said the company and distributors are in sync ahead of the launch. “And they’re pretty excited about it, too, because they see the value that it can deliver for their users by getting them linked up correctly,” he said. “So I think we’re pretty aligned on making this work.”
“No distributor is surprised by this,” Pitaro added. “these are multi-year conversations that we’ve had with them.”
Despite the business rationale, “we recognize the complexity of this, we recognize that we need to simplify it for all of our fans,” said Tina Thornton, EVP of ESPN’s Creative Studio and Marketing. “Even the word ‘authentication,’ does a family really know what that means” when gathering to watch a sporting event or 30 for 30 docuseries?
“So as we go, there will be different messages in different places that allows you to understand exactly what we’re doing and how to do it. It’s teaching not just what we’re doing, but how you get to it.”
Thornton detailed a range of promotional initiatives designed to blanket sports fans and consumers alike with messages in the coming days and weeks. The list includes a Thursday morning bell ringing at the New York Stock Exchange; a series of consumer-facing ads starring John Cena; and a takeover of the New York Subway’s E train (E for ESPN, naturally). There will not only be signage on the inside and outside of the trains, but the voice of ESPN host Stephen A. Smith on the PA system.
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