Disney to launch a new standalone sports streaming service in 2025
ESPN+ does not offer any content from ESPN | Image credit: Disney
After it failed to launch Venu Sports last year in collaboration with Warner Bros. Discover and Fox, Disney revealed plans to launch its own standalone ESPN streaming service later this year.During the company’s earnings call earlier this week, CEO Bob Iger and CFO Hugh Johnston confirmed that Disney is working on bringing ESPN+ and all the ESPN networks under a single flagship in early fall.
ESPN’s flagship offering that will launch in early fall has been and remains our priority. And we expect the elevated product and content experience — which will all be housed within the ESPN app — will be a digital destination for sports fans unlike anything available in the marketplace today, with the full suite of ESPN’s networks and ESPN+, and highly interactive and personalized features.
– Bob Iger CEO and CFO Hugh Johnston, Disney, February 2025
There’s no pricing information mentioned in the earnings, although we suspect Disney will not only offer its standalone ESPN+ streaming service individually, but also in bundles along with some of its products or other services from the competition.
Disney's sports offering is a bit confusing at the moment | Image credit: Disney
It remains to be seen what will happen with Disney’s ESPN and ESPN+ streaming services once the new standalone sports streaming service goes live later this year. Despite its name, the ESPN+ offering doesn’t include any content from ESPN, and vice versa.
Does Disney plan to group these services under a single banner and prevent customers from buying them individually? Or maybe the new sports streaming service will be priced more competitively to make it the obvious choice for sports fans?
Currently, ESPN+ is available for $11.99 per month or $119.99 per year, although Disney is often running promotions that heavily discount the monthly price of the streaming service.
If you can put up with ads, you can also get ESPN+ for $16.99 bundled together with Disney+ and Hulu. For access to ESPN’s cable networks, you’ll have to sign up for a live TV streaming service like Fubo TV, Hulu+ or others.
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