ESPN launched a direct-to-consumer version of its main channels inside a revamped app, allowing subscribers to access top sports without the broader cable bundle. The launch received minimal spectacle despite long-standing expectations that such a move could destabilize the pay-TV bundle. ESPN has developed the project since at least 2023 and positioned it in ways that do not aggressively pursue wholesale migration away from traditional carriage deals. ESPN historically secured premium sports rights to justify rising carriage fees and became the most expensive set of pay-TV channels, a model challenged by extensive cord-cutting and subscriber losses.
That may sound like a lot of fanfare, but ESPN's new direct-to-consumer service has launched with much less of a circus than a media industry watcher might have expected one, three, even five years ago. That's because ESPN is releasing a revolutionary new project that it doesn't really want you to buy. The company has been working on this project-an offering of ESPN's main channels outside the cable bundle-since at least 2023 and likely longer.
ESPN spent the 1980s and '90s building up one of the greatest media business models ever. It hoovered up the rights to air major sporting events, calculating that fans would get so addicted to the games that the network could charge ever-escalating carriage fees to cable companies, who would happily swallow them rather than explain to their customers why they could no longer watch Monday Night Football.
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