• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, Yesterday

Before going forward to the streaming TV world, ESPN is taking a look back at its start in a new TV brand campaign, “Sports Forever.”

It focuses on September 7, 1979 -- the first “SportsCenter” broadcast hosted by Lee Leonard.

This ESPN promo is partly intended to gain major marketing spin, in alignment with the NBA Finals underway between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Indiana Pacers.

The video running underneath Leonard’s intro mixes in all recent sports action -- teams, athletes, games -- ending with the iconic ESPN musical audio tag: “Dah-Dah-Dah.. Dah-Dah-Dah.”

That comes at the end of the spot with a sports fan picking up its mobile phone. Then a message appears onscreen: “Fall 2025: The Next Era Begins,” which teases the forthcoming, highly anticipated ESPN streamer.

That launch is sure to focus on a major marketing effort by Walt Disney to launch ESPN as a full-scale, premium streamer service, promised not just to recreate everything that exists on ESPN as a cable network, but much more -- including access to ESPN BET, and personalization attributes for subscribers.

Disney needs to amp this up well beyond the usual cable TV-based programming promotion.

ESPN is a major element of this diversified media company. In addition, much of ESPN's future with sports fans -- including younger sports fans -- comes via new digital-video platforms.

Some of Leonard's broadcast is a discussion of what the future will bring -- especially for those sports-hungry TV consumers. One of the creative agency executives used the words including “prophecy” and “oracle” in its branding intro.

What are the pitfalls that could be coming.

For many, it could be the eye opening $29.99 monthly price tag -- especially when compared to current pricing for other premium streamers, particularly ad-free plans: Netflix ($17.99), Disney+ ($15.99); Prime Video ($14.99 with Amazon Prime) and Max ($16.99).

The picture looks even more challenging when factoring in ad-supported plans for these services around -- $7.99 (Netflix, Disney+), $8.99 (Prime Video) and Max ($9.99).

The push then for Disney -- as it has been in the recent past -- comes with bundling savings.

For that, the ESPN-Hulu-Disney+ bundle will cost $35.99 a month.

And then it gets better for the first 12 months of ESPN’s streaming platform's existence -- that the three streamers will cost just $29.99 a month. That means, essentially -- perhaps in marketing parlance to come -- that ESPN will be essentially free for the first year.

What’s the overall target? Pretty much where the current legacy pay TV market sits now -- at 60 million subscribers. This came from ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro during a media event: “Our priority is looking at the 60 million households on the sidelines.”

Expect a heavy marketing campaign blitz, starting in August and early September, to bat around those pricing numbers to lure in consumers.

For Disney, there will be no looking back after that.