Nearly three months afterpricing was revealed, Disneyannounced today that the new direct-to-consumer (DTC) streaming form of ESPN and its "enhanced" app will launch on August 21 – in time for the kickoff of the NFL's regular season and the start of the college football season.
As announced in mid-May, the ESPN DTC "unlimited" service will start at $29.99 per month as a standalone option, meaning subscribers do not have to buy a traditional pay-TV service. The new offering, simply branded as "ESPN," will also be available to consumers who get ESPN's stable of channels from cable operators, satellite service providers and other other types of traditional pay-TV distributors. Among operators, Charter Communications will also sell the ESPN DTC service to broadband-only customers via itscoming digital store, which among other things will allow customers to buy and upgrade their third-party streaming apps.
With a nod to the bundle, the ESPN unlimited plan combined with Disney+ and Hulu's subscription video-on-demand service is being offered at a 12-month, promotional/introductory rate of $29.99 per month. The regular price is $35.99 per month with ad-supported versions of Disney+ and Hulu, or $44.99 per month ad-free.
More bundles on the horizon
ESPN will also explore additional bundles with other sports programmers, but there's nothing concrete to report on that front, Disney CEO Bob Iger said ontoday's earnings call.
"We believe there may be opportunities for us to bundle other companies' sports offerings," Iger said. "We've actually had some discussions with some other companies on doing just that."
The new ESPN offering will include the flagship sports channel, along with ESPN2, ESPNU, SECN, ACCN, ESPNEWS, ESPN Deportes, ESPN on ABC, ESPN3, SECN+ and ACCNX and ESPN+. ESPN+ will also continue to be sold as a separate streaming service for $11.99 per month. ESPN said it will also sell and bundle the NFL+ Premium service with the new DTC package.
In all, ESPN estimates that the offering will deliver more than 47,000 live events annually and will include on-demand replays, studio shows and original programming. It will also provide personalization options, multi-view (when available), integrated game stats, betting info and fantasy sports.
The launch of ESPN DTC will mark the first time such a package will be available without requiring consumers to attach it to a traditional pay-TV bundle. Having that kind of flexibility has grown in importance as pay-TV cord-cutting slices down the size of ESPN's audience.
"Our priority is looking at the 60 million households on the sidelines," ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro said at a media event in May, when pricing on ESPN DTC was first announced.
Fox Corp. also plans to launch a new DTC offering called Fox One on August 21. The service, which sells for $19.99 per month, includes local Fox feeds (including Fox's NFL Sunday coverage) and a slate of other networks/channels such as FS1, FS2, Fox News, Fox Business News, Fox Deportes and Big Ten Network.
ESPN-NFL deal
ESPN also has become a closer partner to the NFL,announcing Tuesday that ESPN will acquire NFL Network and properties such as the RedZone Channel and NFL Fantasy, in exchange for a 10% equity stake in ESPN. ESPN is also licensing an additional three NFL games per season to air on NFL networks.
A second, non-binding agreement will have the NFL license to ESPN certain NFL content and other intellectual property to be used by NFL Network "and other assets."
"This represents a major win for ESPN on multiple fronts," MoffettNathanson analyst Robert Fishman said in aresearch note (registration required). "A long-term equity partnership with the league helps de-risk ESPN's DTC transition and effectively sets a valuation floor, as the NFL now has (pig)skin in the game."