Does Disney, Fox, Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Streaming Venture Mean Standalone ESPN Streaming Service is Dead?
Disney has been laying the ground for a new ESPN streaming service for months, but is that work all for naught thanks to yesterday’s announcmenet?
The foundations of the streaming world were rocked this week, as news broke that Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery would join forces on a powerful new sports streaming venture. This platform will carry games from all major sports leagues in the United States, and include content from ESPN, TNT, FS1, and other broadcast and cable channels owned by the three companies. One big question arising from the news, however, is what will happen to plans for a new ESPN-only streaming service that Disney has been working on for nearly a year?
- News first broke that Disney was looking to create a new streaming service that allowed viewers to watch all of ESPN’s offerings without cable last spring.
- Since then, Disney has engaged with multiple potential partners about investing in ESPN.
- Disney is likely to move ahead with this offering, in order to give customers multiple subscription options.
Is a New Standalone ESPN Streamer Still Underway?
The Wall Street Journal reports that ESPN is still planning to create a new streaming service of its own in the near future. The Journal cited “people close to the situation” who confirmed that Disney was still looking for the right strategic partner to invest in ESPN and help it create a new streaming platform with the worldwide leader in sports’ full content offerings that won’t require a cable subscription to access.
News first broke that Disney was interested in whipping up a new ESPN streaming service in May 2023. Since then, more information has trickled out about tech companies like Amazon, mobile distributors like Apple and Verizon, and even sports leagues like the NFL having conversations with Disney about becoming investors.
To date, however, there have been no reports about who might step in to join ESPN in the project.
Why is Disney Moving Ahead With Its ESPN Plans if it Has a New Joint Venture?
Creating a standalone streaming service of its own while also collaborating with Fox and WBD on the new streaming venture announced on Tuesday allows Disney to have its cake and eat it too. The joint venture will offer not only access to Disney-owned sports channels, but those from WBD and Fox too. This yet-to-be-named platform will have an impressive lineup of live sports, but it will likely come at a high monthly cost, likely three to five times as much as a subscription to ESPN+ ($10.99 per month) currently runs.
An ESPN-only service will very likely still offer more content than ESPN+ currently does, likely including livestreams of ESPN channels like the new joint venture platform will. But customers who don’t need all of the sports heading to the Disney/Fox/WBD service will likely still want the choice to pay less for fewer sports they won’t end up watching anyway.
Disney holds a wide array of sports rights on its own, including NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL games, and a wide variety of college sports. There could be a large segment of customers who would pay (hypothetically) $20-$30 per month for that service because it gives them exactly the right amount of sports coverage. A standalone ESPN streamer also allows Disney to keep more subscription and advertising revenue for itself; since the joint venture will be owned by Disney, Fox, and WBD equally, the revenue generated from the new platform will need to be split.
Cord-cutting has created a large audience of viewers hungry for access to sports content without having to return to pay TV. These fans will have several new choices for accessing live sports in the near future, as a new sports streaming joint venture between Disney, Fox, and WBD will be born alongside a standalone ESPN streaming service in the next couple of years.
ESPN+
ESPN+ is a live TV streaming service that gives access to thousands of live sporting events, original shows like Peyton’s Place, the entire library of 30 for 30, E:60, The Last Dance, as well exclusive written analysis from top ESPN insiders. Sports available on ESPN+ include NFL, MLB, NHL, UFC, College Football, F1, Bundesliga, PGA Tour, La Liga, and more.