We think ESPN’s Flagship will be the streaming story of 2025
We think ESPN’s Flagship will be the streaming story of 2025
The new ESPN streamer could have the power to seriously disrupt the pay-TV industry.
Picking the biggest streaming story of the year is always a fascinating exercise. In 2024, I decided to zoom out a bit, considering the storylines that I think will have an impact not just in the short term, but over time as well. When seen in that light, I think the obvious winner for the biggest streaming story of 2024 is the continued development of ESPN’s new streaming service Flagship, which has the potential to be seriously disruptive to the already-fragile pay-TV market.
Key Details:
- ESPN Flagship will carry live streams of the ESPN cable channels outside of a pay-TV plan for the first time.
- The streamer will carry a multitude of features, including the ability to offer local sports in select markets.
- Flagship has the power to disrupt cable companies nearly as much as the Venu Sports platform.
In 2022 and 2023, more than 70% of remaining cable subscribers rated ESPN as a must-have channel. It’s the most popular single network of any channel, and making it available outside of the cable bundle is going to have huge effects on the rest of the pay-TV marketplace.
Flagship will offer full live streams of the ESPN family of channels, for a reported price of around $25 to $30 per month. The service will also come with a range of modern features, including an AI-customized version of “SportsCenter” that will be individual to all subscribers. Flagship will also come with a multiview, sports wagering integrations with ESPN Bet, and a lot more.
Geo-targeting capabilities will also let Flagship offer local sports in their respective markets, should MLB, NBA, and NHL teams tire of the regional sports networks that air their games currently. That could spell trouble down the road for companies like Diamond Sports Group, which just emerged from a long bankruptcy period and is trying to get its feet back under it.
The wealth of new details that became available about Flagship in 2024, including its proposed late summer 2025 launch date, would be enough to constitute one of the biggest stories of the year. However, when considering the streamer’s ability to have a major impact on the pay-TV industry as a whole in the coming years, I think Flagship is definitely the most important streaming story of 2024.
The availability of ESPN, the most beloved and in-demand cable channel of them all outside of the cable bundle is likely to be a serious game-changer. I think it has the power to be almost as disruptive as Venu Sports, the joint venture service that Disney intended to bring to market with Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery to deliver only their sports channels to would-be customers for less than $45 per month.
Venu was considered so dangerous that Fubo has thrown an antitrust lawsuit in its path, and now it appears increasingly likely that the JV will never actually make it to consumers. But there are no antitrust grounds for Fubo to sue to stop Flagship from hitting the market, and ESPN was to be the crown jewel of Venu anyhow, considering its popularity.
Flagship has the potential to draw millions of pay-TV customers away from their current bundles for good. With on-demand access to ESPN’s content, as well as the increasing availability of top scripted cable shows on streamers like Hulu, I think plenty of viewers will simply not see the need to keep a pay-TV package any longer.
The country’s biggest cable and satellite companies already lost almost 7 million subscribers in 2023, and it’s likely a similar proportion of pay-TV subscribers left their plans in 2024. With the launch of Flagship coming in 2025, pay-TV distributors should be prepared to see an even greater exodus of customers. The service’s potential as a disruptor makes it not only the biggest streaming story of 2024 but could make it the biggest story of the entire decade.
ESPN Select
ESPN Select is a streaming service that replaced ESPN+ and provides access to live NHL, MLB, and MLS games, PGA Tour Golf, international sports events, ESPN original programming, and a complete archive of “30 for 30.” Find out our review of the service and how to start streaming ESPN Select.