We’re about to find out how many sports fans are among all the cord-cutters out there.
Disney has announced its first subscription streaming service – ESPN Plus – which will launch this spring at $4.99 a month. What will you get for that? A deep potpourri of live sporting events, including Major League Baseball, National Hockey League, and Major League Soccer games, on top of plenty of tennis, boxing, golf, college sports, golf, rugby, and cricket contests not available on ESPN’s traditional TV networks.
Scores, highlights, shows like Pardon the Interruption, and ESPN films – including the acclaimed 30 for 30 documentaries – will also be available on the service.
Right now we know ESPN Plus will be available on both Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android mobile device systems, as well as on Apple TV and Google’s Chromecast.
A new, streamlined version of the ESPN app will also debut alongside ESPN+ in the spring, promising a more customizable user experience. “If anything points to what the future of ESPN looks like, it will be this app and the experience that it provides,” said Disney CEO Bob Iger Tuesday on a conference with investors.
Iger also reminded us that Disney’s Netflix-like streaming service is on track for a late-2019 launch and will feature “not just one but a few Star Wars series.”
Unfortunately, for ESPN & ESPN 2 you will still need a subscription through a service provider. Now, how is that going to work?