Phil Nickinson / Digital Trends
In what has to be one of the longest - awaited modification to the streaming video universe of discourse , ESPN will be useable as a standalone cyclosis service in the fall 0f 2025 .
Disney CEO Bob Iger announced the news during the fellowship ’s first - poop lucre call for fiscal 2024 — and one day after it was announced that ESPN , Fox , and Warner Bros. Discovery arepooling their sports assets for a super sports streaming servicethat ’s set to launch in declension 2024 . ( Disney owns ESPN . )
“ The full suite of ESPN line ” will be available , Iger said . And it ’ll be fully interactive , with e - commerce lineament also useable . The standalone ESPN table service can also be amply individualize .
“ Not only will consumers be able-bodied to pour their favorite live game and studio programing , they ’ll also have approach to engaging digital integration like ESPN Bet , phantasy fun , tocopherol - DoC features , and a deep raiment of sports stats , all of which we know will be incredibly compelling to immature sports rooter in fussy , ” Iger read in his prepared comment .
The snatch about jr. sportswoman fans mirrored whatFox CEO Lachlan Murdoch saidabout the upcoming joint venture with Disney .
“ ESPN has long prioritized its desire and power to serve sports fans wherever they are , ” Iger continued . “ And these steps will beef up ESPN ’s ability to hand over on that hope . ”
Iger say the standalone ESPN service also will be able to be bunch with Disney+,just as it ’s done with Hulu .
No pricing information was announced , but Iger said it would be “ importantly ” less than a overseas telegram or artificial satellite subscription . Nor were there any point about how , exactly , the standalone ESPN stream will be made uncommitted , though it would make common sense for it but to seem in the existing ESPN app across all chopine . That app also is where ESPN+ has been domiciliate since its origination .
Iger , during the Q&A portion of the earnings call , said the standalone ESPN pick would be available “ in belike August of ’ 25 . ”
“ We ’ve been saying for a long time that take ESPN in the direct - to - consumer counseling was inevitable , ” Iger said . “ And that we were reckon for partners to do so . This is really not a first step . It ’s a second step . The first step was set up ESPN+ some years ago , which has actually been quite successful . ” ESPN+ set in motion in April 2018 .
“ at last , ” Iger said , “ our mission is to make ESPN into the preeminent digital summercater brand , reaching as many sport rooter as potential and giving them even more ways to reach the programing they sleep together in whatever way best suit their penury . ”
