• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, May 15, 2025

Walt Disney might be "all in" when it comes to launching ESPN as a full-service streamer -- poised to be not only the same content of its longtime cable TV network, but with much more.

The question is whether Disney is enticing consumers with all possible options for them to buy in.

ESPN -- which is perhaps the most lucrative of any U.S. cable TV network (yes, more than Fox News Channel) -- is betting the house, so to speak, that its eye-opening price of $29.99 a month will push cord-cutters who abandoned legacy pay TV systems to at least sample the new streaming service.

While that $30 price tag may be a big ask for consumers, consider that Netflix's top service, Netflix Premium, is priced at $24.99.

For hardcore sports TV fans -- who currently pay $80 to $90 a month for traditional network bundles on Comcast, Charter, DirecTV, YouTube TV, and Dish Network -- that means there is now more entertainment math to consider.

ESPN, as a streamer service, also promises more innovation: Additional content and easier access to ESPN BET, as well as personalized user choices.

Prospective new subscribers for the new service -- who are current pay TV consumers -- will likely be allowed to access the ESPN streamer free of charge -- like what other services allow. (For example, current HBO cable subscribers get Max for free.).

This comes via so-called “authentication” from their existing pay TV provider. ESPN currently has around 65 million U.S. cable TV subscribers.

No doubt Disney has already gathered some key viewing/usage data from its existing ESPN+ app -- which offers limited sports programming, one that has amassed 24 million subscribers currently. That somewhat less promoted platform launched in April 2018.

Those customers might make the leap to the bigger fuller service. Disney has not disclosed future plans or changes for ESPN+ -- if any.

There is also the question of how Disney will market -- with national TV advertising --- the new ESPN platform. Surely, it will need to play up its potentially bigger value with all the new bells and whistles.

In addition, there will be heavy TV messaging incentives to add in Disney+ and Hulu, a package which would then total $35.99/month for the first 12 months.

For many the heavy $29.99 price might seem much for some -- especially if consumers are only getting just a significant, but not virtually all major sports TV content that is available.

Now, you may know why Venu Sports -- the failed joint streaming venture of sports programming for Disney, Fox Corp, and Warner Bros. Discovery -- was considered to be important piece of the puzzle.

That would have given sports-minded consumers another sports option to buy, sample, and perhaps keep their longtime loyal access to all that significant ESPN sports content.

Consumers are like football quarterbacks, likely to call "audibles" -- changes at the line of scrimmage -- right before the play begins.

Or in this case, their streaming subscription plays.