ESPN's subscription streaming service launches April 12

[Shawn Knight]

ESPN on Monday announced that ESPN+, the upcoming subscription streaming service from Disney, is scheduled to launch on April 12.

As revealed earlier this year, the direct-to-consumer offering will be priced at $4.99 per month and offer a dynamic lineup of live sports, original content and on-demand programming. The streaming component will be integrated into a redesigned and reimagined ESPN app for mobile and also be available online via ESPN.com.

The streaming service, as well as Disney’s upcoming subscription offering, will be powered by BAMTech which is a unit of Disney Direct-to-Consumer and International. Disney purchased a majority stake in BAMTech – 42 percent, to be exact – in August 2017 for $1.58 billion.

ESPN+ will offer more than 180 MLB and NHL games, 250+ MLS games and coverage of thousands of college sporting events as well as a collection of high-quality boxing matches, PGA Tour coverage and Grand Slam tennis events, among others.

Notably, the $4.99 per month price of admission will not include access to ESPN’s eight television channels. To watch those, you’ll still need a pay TV subscription. As I mentioned earlier this year, ESPN+ will essentially carry filler content that didn’t make the cut on the main ESPN channels. This won’t be a huge concern for niche sports fans but for the average viewer that’s mostly into mainstream sports, the subscription service likely won’t be of much interest.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/73979-espn-subscription-streaming-service-launches-april-12.html

 

[TomSEA]

"Notably, the $4.99 per month price of admission will not include access to ESPN’s eight television channels. To watch those, you’ll still need a pay TV subscription."

Dumb. No one is going to pay even five bucks a month if all you're getting is "filler" content and can't see live sporting events.

 

[kapital98]

"Notably, the $4.99 per month price of admission will not include access to ESPN’s eight television channels. To watch those, you’ll still need a pay TV subscription."

Dumb. No one is going to pay even five bucks a month if all you're getting is "filler" content and can't see live sporting events.

There is a ton of live content. Niche is key. I'm a huge boxing fan and ESPN+ allows boxing fans a chance to see (mostly) second rate cards. Which for huge boxing fans is a huge plus.

Same can be said of plenty of other sports that have a hard time getting their lesser games/fights/etc aired. You can almost think of it like PPV in that sense. I subscribe to BoxNation for ~$17/month just to get 1-2 cards (2-4 fights on a card) per month. And it's still a great deal compared to the price of HBO + PPV's.

Preferably, you could get ESPN+ as an add-on to something like Sling TV.

 

[Mister_K]

Does it stream the AHL/NHL?

 

[Puiu]

Unless you have a big interest in the filler content, I don't think it's worth buying it.