ESPN+, the upcoming direct-to-consumer subscription streaming service from Disney Direct-to-Consumer and International in partnership with ESPN and featuring ESPN branded content, will launch on April 12 and offer fans a dynamic lineup of live sports, original content and an unmatched library of award-winning on-demand programming – all for a subscription price of $4.99 per month.
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Additional details about the array of content in the ESPN+ programming lineup will be announced in the coming days and weeks, but among the thousands of live sports events that ESPN+ will offer to fans are:
- MLB – MORE THAN 180 GAMES; A GAME PER DAY THROUGHOUT SEASON: ESPN+ will feature an ESPN+ MLB game each day, seven days per week, throughout the MLB regular season – more than 180 games that will include every MLB team.*
- NHL – MORE THAN 180 GAMES; GAME OF THE DAY THROUGHOUT REGULAR SEASON: Beginning with the 2018-19 NHL season, subscribers to ESPN+ will get a daily NHL game throughout the NHL regular season (in keeping with the NHL schedule) – more than 180 hockey games.*
- BOXING – YEAR-ROUND SCHEDULE, INCLUDES EXCLUSIVE KHAN VS. LO GRECO BOUT: ESPN+ is a key part of ESPN's multi-platform Top Rank Boxing on ESPN boxing agreement and will feature high-quality boxing throughout the year, including a selection of exclusive main event fights beginning with the April 21 Amir Khan vs. Phil Lo Greco bout in Liverpool, England. In addition, ESPN+ will feature undercard fights throughout the year from Top Rank on ESPN events, re-airs of all Top Rank on ESPN and PPV events and an unmatched library of legendary fights from the Top Rank and ESPN Big Fights archives.
- MLS – MORE THAN 250 GAMES: At launch, ESPN+ will include exclusive access for subscribers to the entire MLS Live out-of-market schedule, featuring more than 250 games,* through their subscription. Before launch, fans can access free MLS out-of-market games streaming live on live on MLSsoccer.com and the MLS App. Additionally, ESPN+ will be the exclusive local-market home for the Chicago Fire, bringing 27 Fire matches to fans in Chicago.
- COLLEGE SPORTS – THOUSANDS OF GAMES AND EVENTS, MULTIPLE SPORTS, ACROSS NEARLY TWO DOZEN CONFERENCES: The ESPN+ lineup will be rich with thousands of live college sports events, including football, basketball, baseball, softball, soccer, track & field, gymnastics, swimming & diving, lacrosse, wrestling, volleyball, golf and more — from over a dozen conferences across the country including the America East, ASun, Big South, Big West, Horizon, Ivy League, MAAC, MAC, MEAC, Missouri Valley, NEC, Southern Conference, Southland, Summit League, Sun Belt, WAC and many more.
SPRING SPORTS
- COLLEGE BASEBALL & SOFTBALL: ESPN+ will help college baseball and softball fans see more games than ever before, with hundreds more games from across the college ranks streamed live, exclusively on ESPN+.
- LACROSSE, TENNIS AND TRACK & FIELD: ESPN+ will carry dozens of events from across conferences this spring.
FALL SPORTS
- COLLEGE FOOTBALL: ESPN+ will include hundreds of college football games each season from across more than a dozen conferences in the FBS and FCS.
- MEN'S AND WOMEN'S SOCCER, VOLLEYBALL, FIELD HOCKEY: ESPN+ will have hundreds of games this fall from soccer, volleyball and field hockey as the 2018-19 academic year gets underway.
WINTER SPORTS
- COLLEGE BASKETBALL: College hoops fans will get hundreds of men's and women's games every season on ESPN+ from all across the college basketball landscape – from division one powerhouses to top mid-majors to the next tournament Cinderella and more.
- COLLEGE WRESTLING, SWIMMING & DIVING, GYMNASTICS AND ICE HOCKEY: Fans of winter Olympic sports will get hundreds of games from a variety of conference partners nationwide exclusively on ESPN+.
- PGA TOUR LIVE GOLF – MORE THAN 100 DAYS OF COVERAGE FROM 31 PGA TOUR EVENTS: Golf fans will be able to follow the PGA TOUR throughout the year, with more than 100 days of live coverage from 31 PGA TOUR events, including THE PLAYERS Championship, the FedEx Cup Playoffs, AT&T Byron Nelson, AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Travelers Championship, Arnold Palmer Invitational and dozens more. Coverage will include Thursday, Friday and some Saturday and Sunday play during the events.
- GRAND SLAM TENNIS – HUNDREDS OF TENNIS MATCHES FROM WIMBLEDON, US OPEN & AUSTRALIAN OPEN: Tennis fans will have access to more of the action than ever at three of the annual Grand Slam tennis events. With hundreds of men's and women's singles and doubles matches, ESPN+ will be the perfect complement for every passionate tennis fan.
- RUGBY & CRICKET – HUNDREDS OF MATCHES FROM INTERNATIONAL RUGBY AND CRICKET: ESPN+ will serve rugby and cricket fans in the U.S. with more of their beloved sports, throughout the year. Rugby fans will get matches from SANZAAR (including Super Rugby, The Rugby Championship, the Lions Series, Mitre10 Cup, Currie Cup, Bledisloe Cup and other international matches), the HSBC World Rugby Sevens series, and 18 regular-season matches in the inaugural season of Major League Rugby, the new American professional rugby union league. Meanwhile, passionate cricket fans across the U.S. will get matches across Test, ODI and T20 formats from New Zealand Cricket and Cricket Ireland.
In addition to the hundreds of NHL and MLB games included in the ESPN+ subscription ($4.99/month, or $49.99/year), die-hard fans will be able to purchase the entire MLB.TV out-of-market package via ESPN+ and view the games within the ESPN App. MLB.TV will cost an additional $24.99 per month. Beginning with the 2018-19 NHL season, fans will also be able to purchase the entire NHL.TV out-of-market package.
This is extremely interesting. It sounds to me like ESPN has an agreement with MLB and the NHL to allow customers to stream in-market games, bundled that within the WatchESPN / ESPN3 infrastructure, rebranded it, and is now making it a premium subscription-based service. I'm very curious on how this will impact things going forward, but I'm not at all going to be a happy camper if this means all the VT games I used to be able to stream as part of my cable subscription won't be available unless I also subscribe to this new venture. Especially given the hefty chunk of that cable bill that is already going to ESPN.
Comments
Based on the conferences listed, it doesn't look like the ACC, or other major conferences will be impacted.
At least at the current moment, they're being intentionally vague on which leagues will be impacted. The fact that the ACC Network still hasn't been fully realized does worry me a bit.
Yeah, that's true, and who's to say they don't switch it eventually.
Not sure if this will save ESPN from cable-cutting-induced-disintegration of their business model, or will be a rebranded ESPN3 with all the failures and cable tie-ins included at a higher price tag.
Should be interesting to see how ESPN messes this up.
We can expect more of this...
All the legs for you
Their description is wildly vague. Does anyone know if this is going to be a viable strategy to watch ESPN events without a cable subscription? Or is this supposed to be a cheap alternative to owning all of the auxiliary channels that no one has?
From what I'm reading, you'll still need a cable subscription to get any of the games that will be broadcasting on the main networks.
Gross. I'm not sure who this is supposed to market to then. Sad part is that I'm actually not a big ESPN hater like a lot of people, I still am an "insider" for draft stuff and generally like ESPN products. However, this seems really dumb.
ESPN is hemorrhaging money away from Disney because of the stupidly high contracts they've signed with the SEC, NBA, and MNF for the NFL, not to mention the other deals they have with the ACC, Formula 1, MLS, MLB, and others.. This seems like a last ditch effort to try and squeeze every penny from their current cable subscribers before things really do spiral out of control.
I'm not sure how well this is going to work. People don't generally like to pay extra for something they've grown accustomed to getting for "free".
Idk why they just won't go for a full sized version of HBO Now... I think a large portion of the people who haven't cut the cord (myself included) are just there for live sports.
If they get out from TV only broadcasting rights and got the mobile streaming rights, they could see the money pouring in again.
Yup, if I could get the major sports channels (ESPN Networks, NBCSN, Fox Sports) I would drop Hulu Live and just pay $20 for that (which would probably be a net gain for them).
They can't handle the broadstream of it yet. Live events like the Super bowl are terrible on streaming services with buffering, because so many people are watching the same thing.
This confuses me, I thought I read in their that this streaming service will include ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNNEWS and a bunch of others. to me that says that if a game is being shown on ESPN primetime at 8 pm or whenever I should be able to watch it on ESPN+ right?
It's very possible I have read this completely wrong tho so my bad if I'm off
This ESPN+ doesn't include the big ESPN channels. My reading of this is they are asking for more money to put all of the other sports they don't have on TV right now onto this "channel". It look like they are using the WatchESPN app as the interface to view this new on-demand channel. They might was well call ESPN+ "The Ocho" because that is basically what it is.
OOOOOHH okay...I shouldve guessed this sounded too good to be true. Thanks for the info
Probably the best way to see this is that they're creating a version of ESPN3 that you have to pay for.
So ACC-Network izz free?
Not to long ago my wife wanted me to finish some cleaning, house repairs, etc. so I cleaned up half the garage and then got sidetracked working on one of my garage mess-making projects. This story did not have a happy ending
ESPN, at least finish cleaning the garage. Your watchESPN app is "the shit", but it's currently the kind you pick up after your dog.
Is there a sports app that you prefer? I have found the watchESPN app to be markedly better than other apps broadcasting live sports. The ability to watch replays, a wide range of sports, and an app that doesn't require flash and works on several platforms are all positives for me.
I'm curious, how did your story end? Did you end up making a man-cave corner in the garage, or is "the garage" a metaphor meaning something more?
Will it broadcast the Virginia Tech spring game?
The only time I watch ESPN or any related channels is when it involves VT sports. I don't need to hear blowhards or two people yelling at each other, which most of their shows seem to be. Although PTI has it's moments.
i wouldn't know if PTI has its moments
I'm with you. I love watching sports. I love talking about sports. I can't stand watching people talk about sports. And that's 75% of what's on ESPN these days.
The other 20% is them talking about politics with the paltry remaining 5% being the actual sports themselves.
Remember when MTV actually played music videos...that's where ESPN is headed!
Sorry this is late. Here ya go.
Serious question for people...
What else is ESPN going to show being the hours of 7 am and 7 pm during the week?
During baseball season you can show games starting after noon EST, but for the most part there's a huge programming hole. The 30 For 30 documentaries are great, but there's only so many of those to re-run.
Otherwise, you're stuck with lots of niche sports or rights to international sports leagues that aren't going to move the needle any more than the sportstalk programming they're already showing. From my understanding, it's also a lot cheaper to produce a studio show than many people would expect.
well they used to show mid Atlantic wrestling...
Pepperidge Farm remembers.Oops. Wrong spot.
This plan sounds interesting to me as I watch more olympic/niche sports and replays than the sports events broadcast on live TV. I also think it is curious that the NBA is not on the list, it is one of the properties I have heard is still seeing growth on the broadcast side.
This is something I've been excited about for a while because it includes MLS Live (which was previously 60-70 bucks a year). I'm also excited about the NHL game of the day. So, for me, it's worth it and I'm excited. Not sure what other value it brings other than expensive ESPN3. I'll let y'all know what I think.
I don' think anyone mentioned it yet, but ESPN+ is NOT a rebranded WatchESPN, and it is NOT an OTT method to watch live ESPN/ESPN2/ESPNU, etc. It's a streaming service that includes a variety of sports content, most of which is not/will not be available on current ESPN networks. It's also still subject to blackouts (so you probably won't be able to watch your local teams for NHL/MLB).
From what I've gathered from a variety of podcasts (mostly @SportsTVRatings and a little bit of PAPN) and a few other outlets is that this product (as released) isn't designed to be a replace ESPN - it's essentially a low risk way for ESPN to dip their tows into the DTC model and test out different pricing methods, technologies, user interfaces, etc. One of the @SportsTVRating's guest (can't recall who) mentioned that ESPN don't expect it to be profitable for some time.
Hulu Live was very good to me this past season; I highly recommend giving it a trial run come September.
Based on my recent experiences with the Watch ESPN apps, I have zero confidence in the quality of this product.
I'll try and be positive.....This is going to suck ass.
I wonder if it will show Australian Rules Football like they used to show back when ESPN first began? Maybe they'll show dominoes like I saw once - I kid you not!
This sounds like a great plan for somebody that wants to watch a random game in a specific sporting event:
"Hmmm...I feel like watching a Major League Baseball game. I wonder which game ESPN will let me watch today?"
It doesn't sound useful, at all, for anybody that's interested in a specific team in a sport.
SURVEY SAYS....
Enjoy the future:
At this point cord cutting is getting just as expensive as cable. I haven't cut the cord, then again I only watch channels 570-596 on FiOS.
It kind of depends how much TV you/your family (and friends) watch. I live by myself, watch college sports, a few HBO shows, and a few Netflix shows. I watch 10-15 hours of TV week during football season and probably 5 hours a week during the off-season. WatchESPN (yes I use my parents cable password)/Antenna gets me almost any VT game and most CFB games that I want to watch in HD. I share HBO go and Netflix log ins. $50/month for 100mbps internet, and $10/month for my share of Netflix/HBO.
That said, if you have roommates or a family with diverse taste (for example, a SO who NEEDS HGTV and Bravo 😒), cable is the way to go.
Problem solved. Just siphon it from an unsuspecting neighbor.
**DISCLAIMER NOTICE: This statement is in no form advocating the siphoning of other persons cable or internet.**
I suggest this.
DISCLAIMER: I'm not suggesting that.
Guess this won't be available in the UK. Don't think they're accepting Schillings.
You'll have to add in the sad trombone sound on your own.
I fear my daughter is going to love that show.
Her and a bunch of supremely creepy lonely middle aged men who like to play dress up
If you have a daughter, yes, I can almost guarantee you will have that on your TV quite often. I speak from personal experience. Though I will admit, it isn't the worst show that my daughter has watched.
That's true. There are a lot of kid shows that are worse than that. *cough* Mia & me *cough*
MLP is not that bad. Nothing I'd sit down to watch myself, by any stretch, but something I can tolerate while enjoying double snuggles.
I gotcha covered. Presenting the Bonists from the global famous (& recently out of financial turmoil) Minnesota Orchestra!
Well it is Disney. Their overarching goal is to make people happy. If I get all of my team's games, as well as all of the big games I've come to expect from ABC/ESPN, then I'd be happy.
I think a whole lot of people, myself definitely included, have been waiting for ESPN to cut the cord. I expected the ABC/ESPN networks, as well as Disney content, to be a $20/month subscription, but I'd pay it if I could watch Lion King and Aladdin whenever I wanted as well as all the ABC programming, ABC/ESPN live sports, 30 for 30s, and whatever else they do live and/or in archive form.
$5 makes me think this service will be too limited!
That's the intent... First generation of the product is designed to be an add on, not a replacement.
Apparently there will be a 30 day free trial for this service as long as you sign up in the first week (April 12-18). Still no info about how to sign up.
https://twitter.com/thegoalkeeper/status/983778856598409216
Now that it launched today, you can sign up either on the desktop ESPN website (there's a new button on the banner right next to "Watch") or in the ESPN App (which apparently also got a significant update today - I wonder if this update will bork their servers for months like when they updated everything last summer).
Sounds like home ACC football games will be exempt from this (for now), but still no word about other sports. I figure with the "division one powerhouses to top mid-majors to the next tournament Cinderella" verbiage that we're fairly likely to have a couple ACC basketball games ported over, possibly games that would only be on WatchESPN in the first place. I imagine that they will start putting more and more "free" WatchESPN content behind the paywall in the coming years.
I think a lot of people are being overly negative about this service.
Yes, it's niche products for the most part at the outset, but I think it's priced at point that makes sense for someone who may only have one major interest.
If you're a soccer fan, this is a great deal to watch out of market MLS games. Similarly, the lower-tier USL and English second division will have matches on the service.
If you're a fan of a Sun Belt team, the majority of your team's content will be available for a reasonable rate.
MLS fans might seem small in comparison to the big four leagues in the US, but when you start aggregating the numbers of MLS fans, Sun Belt teams, Ivy League teams, rugby fans, etc... The value for ESPN starts to add up. I think it'll end up being a very solid service that probably makes ESPN money, even if it doesn't replace the existing ecosystem entirely at the outset.
ESPN reached a deal with UFC to stream 15 Fight Night events (with 12 fights on each card) via ESPN+