Did Disney just reveal the true name of its new ESPN streamer?
Did Disney just reveal the true name of its new ESPN streamer?
One Disney ad executive may have let the name of the new ESPN service slip at the 2025 CTV Connect conference this week.
ESPN hasn’t been particularly secretive regarding its new streaming service. The streamer will offer a wide range of customizable features, sports betting integrations, and much more, in addition to live streams of all ESPN linear channels when this long-gestating platform launches later this year. But one piece of information that Disney has so far kept under wraps is the official name of the service; company figures have referred to it as “Flagship,” but one Disney ad executive may have revealed the true name at the 2025 CTV Connect conference this week
Key Details:
- Disney ad exec Wendell Scott repeatedly referred to ESPN’s new streamer as “ESPN All Access” during his talk.
- The exec said that the service is intended to “super-serve” sports fans.
- The streamer will launch before the start of college football this year, and will likely cost around $30 per month.
As noted by CableFax, when speaking at the CTV Connect conference, Disney SVP of advertising Wendell Scott repeatedly referred to the new streaming service as “ESPN All Access.” That doesn’t necessarily mean that the service heretofore known as Flagship will officially be named ESPN All Access, but it is the best hint any Disney official has provided so far about the real moniker of the streamer.
Scott stressed that the launch of the new service is all about giving fans more flexibility.
“When you have this ecosystem—the largest digital epicenter for sports launching a direct-to-consumer streaming platform for ESPN as a standalone—what we’re building is a self-contained ecosystem that will be able to super serve our sports fans. We want to make sure that they all have choice and control,” he said.
Scott noted that he believed the service would be additive — in other words, it would bring in cord-cutters and cord-nevers, instead of simply cannibalizing audiences who are already streaming ESPN+ or watching linear ESPN channels through a pay-TV service. But fellow panelist Denise Ocasio, executive director of investment at Mindshare, said that the new service’s customer base would likely pull from those sources as well.
“I do agree it’s going to be additive on Day 1, she said. “But at a certain point, it may turn into a cannibalization. That’s the nature of all CTV. Day 1, you’re not going to change the person like myself. I’m an ESPN+ avid user, but at some point, you start to realize, ‘Do I need it from one, two, three different places?’”
Some pay-TV outlets have anticipated that issue ahead of time. In its last carriage deal with Disney, Charter Communications ensured that customers on select plans would get the new ESPN streaming service. Similarly, DIRECTV negotiated for the same benefit in its latest contract with the House of Mouse.
The wait for Disney to reveal the true name of Flagship won’t last much longer, whether it becomes ESPN All Access or not. The service will launch some time before the college football and NFL seasons, and will most likely cost somewhere between $25 and $30 per month.
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