ESPN is launching a standalone streaming service that will provide ESPN and related channels for $30 per month without a pay-TV subscription. The move ends ESPN's long-standing reliance on pay-TV bundles after Disney sought to protect that business amid cable decline. Leadership aims to attract cable-less sports fans through a revamped app with interactive features while keeping existing viewers who access ESPN via cable bundles. Strategic priorities include new NFL rights, expanded programming partnerships such as Pat McAfee, an embrace of sports betting, and considerations of diversity in the current political climate.
Now that is changing. On Thursday, you'll be able to stream ESPN and its related channels for $30 a month without paying for anything else. What took so long? It's pretty simple, says Jimmy Pitaro, who has been running ESPN since 2018: ESPN and its owner, Disney, wanted to keep its pay TV business intact as long as it could.
Now, Pitaro is trying to do two things at once: attract new, cable-less sports fans to his streaming service while keeping the people who are still watching ESPN via a cable TV bundle in place. ( Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch is trying to do the same thing with his new streamer, too.) I talked to Pitaro about the challenges facing the new service - which is launching with a revamped app and promising all kinds of interactive bells and whistles -
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