CEOs rarely talk about plans that are a half-decade or more away from reaching reality. Yet way back in 2015, Disney CEO Robert Iger confirmed the company would eventually offer ESPN as a direct-to-consumer service. It would be an epoch-shifting moment for a channel that has been a cornerstone of pay TV in its traditional form for decades, and Iger said it wouldn’t occur until at least 2020.
Ultimately, this retooling took a full decade—a period during which Iger retired and unretired. But the moment he said would come has arrived. Starting today, you can get full-blown ESPN in stand-alone streaming form, available on connected TVs, phones, tablets, and computers. It’s the biggest inflection point for Disney’s direct-to-consumer video strategy since the company launched Disney+ in 2019.
“We believe that people should be able to subscribe to ESPN in whatever way best suits them,” says Adam Smith, named chief product and technology officer for Disney Entertainment and ESPN a year ago after over 20 years at YouTube and Google. “If they want to do it direct to consumer through us, if they want to buy it through a bundle, or if they want to just continue purchasing it through [a cable or satellite provider], that’s all great.”
What Disney is offering isn’t just the same familiar ESPN programming delivered over the internet. Instead, the company has taken its 47,000 live sporting events a year, spread out across 12 channels, and built a distinctly digital experience around them. That experience spans apps for connected TVs, phones, computers, and TVs, sometimes intermingling them. It also flows into Disney+, where ESPN’s motherlode of content could provide a competitive advantage over Netflix, HBO Max, and other streamers that offer only a dollop of athletics by comparison.
