Disney Confirms New ESPN Streamer Will Include All Cable And Streaming Content

Disney is planning to relaunch ESPN+ as a new standalone streaming service, that would essentially mirror what is available on its suite of ESPN channels. That service is slated to launch this Fall, and today during Disney’s quarterly earnings, Bob Iger gave some more details on what we can expect.

Essentially, the new ESPN streamer will live inside the existing ESPN app – similar to ESPN+ currently. It will also include all current cable and streaming content. Disney also expects that this elevated product and content experience will be a “digital destination for sports fans unlike anything available in the marketplace today”. As it will include the full suite of ESPN networks and ESPN+, as well as a highly interactive and personalized experience.

Disney is still saying “early fall” launch

Disney is still not confirming a specific date for the launch, just “Early Fall”. Technically, Fall doesn’t start until September 22, but we expect this to launch ahead of the NFL season. Particularly since ESPN is such a big part of NFL programming. So this could launch in late August.

Subscribers to the new ESPN streamer will get full access to the entire suite of ESPN programming. Disney is not yet announcing pricing for this service, but we don’t expect this to be the same price as ESPN+ currently. The ESPN networks are typically the most expensive channels in any cable package, so it wouldn’t be too crazy to see the streaming service going for around $50 per month.

Disney has also been hard at work integrating its streaming services with each other. So you can access Disney+ and ESPN+ from Hulu, or ESPN+ and Hulu from Disney+. We’d expect that to be available for this new ESPN streamer as well, perhaps not at launch, however. That could be a feature that comes down the road. We should learn more about this service in the coming months.