ESPN Plus streaming service to launch this spring for $4.99/month

[Shawn Knight]

Disney’s first direct-to-consumer offering, a streaming service called ESPN Plus, will launch this spring priced at $4.99 per month, Disney CEO and Chairman Bob Iger revealed during the company’s most recent earnings report.

In an interview with CNBC’s Closing Bell, Iger said the over-the-top service will include an array of live programming – live sports, live sports events – that is not available on current channels.

The platform will offer around 10,000 sporting events each year across MLB, NHL, MLS, collegiate sports, tennis Grand Slam events and more. That sounds like a lot of content – and it is – but as Recode highlights, it’s not the type of stuff you really want to watch.

All of the high-profile content ESPN pays billions of dollars a year to show – stuff like NBA games, NLF games, top-tier college football – none of that will be on ESPN’s new service. To get the type of content you’d typically associate with ESPN, you still need a subscription to ESPN, either through your cable or satellite provider or via one of the many over-the-top streaming services that have cropped up in recent years.

To put it bluntly, ESPN Plus will carry all of the filler content that isn’t good enough to make the cut on the main ESPN channels. And they want you to pay $4.99 per month for it.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/73163-espn-plus-streaming-service-launch-spring-499month.html

 

[trparky]

Good, now take ESPN out of that standard cable lineups for those of us who don't care about sports 24/7.

 

[wiyosaya]

Yet another BS streaming service. If you're and NHL fan, get their Center Ice streaming package!

Good luck with this Disney!

 

[GeforcerFX]

I think this is them testing the waters, while I would say if you want ESPN streaming then paying $15 more a month and getting sling would be the smarter route, I'm sure Disney/ABC isn't getting $5 of the subscription price on Sling, so the profit ratio should be decent.

 

[toooooot]

Title got me excited for a sec. Then I ve read the article. Back to sopcast streams I go.
But seriously, arent there plenty of people who see no use paying 50-100 dollars for the stuff they dont want? All I want is to watch premier league along with other 4 top championships. I dont care for anything else as there is a reasonably priced netflix and free youtube.
And I get it, NFL is too popular and plenty of people will pay premium. But what about all the mexicans, europeans living here? We could all be ESPN's customers. They hang to this old tv model which is gonna die some day. The day when nobody will agree to see 10 commercials within a movie if it isnt for free. The day when you can pick what you wanna watch and not pay for 90% of the rest of crappy content. Greedy money bags.