On Wednesday, Disney revealed that ESPN+ increased its subscriber total to 25.3 million as of March 31, 2023. That is an increase/a decrease of 400,000 users over the 24.9 million subscribers the service reported during their Q1 call and a year-over-year increase of 13.45% from the 22.3M it had in Q2 of 2022.
Among the biggest news for ESPN+ is that Endeavor reached an agreement to acquire and eventually merge UFC and WWE. UFC has been ESPN+’s golden goose since becoming the exclusive home of the promotion, which may now include WWE programming. Currently, ESPN+ and UFC have an agreement to stream events until 2025.
The platform also saw its largest collegiate audience ever when the LSU Tigers defeated the Iowa Hawkeyes to win the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament. ESPN reported that viewership of the event peaked at 12.6 million, making it the most-viewed college event in ESPN+ history — even more than NCAA football national championship games. Clearly, ESPN’s investment in women’s college basketball has paid off on both the broadcast and streaming fronts.
ESPN+ is also the home of alternate broadcasts, and now even kids can get in on the fun. For a March 14 game between the Washington Capitals and New York Rangers, Disney and the NHL partnered to offer an alternative broadcast called the “NHL Big City Greens Classic,” and featured characters from “Big City Greens.” The alternate presentation leveraged NHL Edge positioning data (puck and player tracking) to recreate the action on the ice as it is happening while featuring “Big City Greens” characters skating alongside animated versions of the NHL players.
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.