(Photo by Mike Windle/Getty Images for ESPN)
When Disney acquired majority ownership of streaming video technology provider BAMTech, the announcement back in August included plenty of details of what ESPN’s new streaming service would deliver to consumers.
ESPN+, as the service was eventually named, would be accessed through a new version of the ESPN app that already includes news, highlights and scores. Within the same app, consumers would need to be pay TV subscribers to access ESPN television networks on an authenticated basis. ESPN+, as a separate service within the app, would offer 10,000 more live events including MLB, NHL, MLS, tennis Grand Slams and college sports for an additional cost.
Half a year later, Disney chairman and CEO Bob Iger said Tuesday on an earnings call that ESPN+ would cost $4.99 per month when it is scheduled to launch in the spring on iOS, Android, tvOS and Chromecast. Subscribers would have access to even more live sports not available on ESPN linear networks that also include boxing, golf, rugby and cricket. And for a Netflix-like experience, they will get a library of ESPN Films, including the 30 for 30 series of documentary films.
There will be something on the reimagined ESPN app for pay TV subscribers and cord-cutters alike.
“What we’re really doing is preparing to be able to thrive in the future however the business models, the way people consume content, evolves,” then-ESPN president John Skipper said in December at the SVG Summit shortly before his resignation. “It’s not a coincidence that we have 16,000 live events here and we’re going to launch another service that has the technological capability to distribute 10,000 events over here. So that however the world evolves, we can adapt. We can move our content around if necessary. Make no mistake. We want to take the most value of the current system as possible but be prepared with optionality if we need to move into a different world.”
Overall, the new ESPN app is “going to be the way you enjoy ESPN the best,” Skipper said. There’s technology being used to make that happen.
Iger said the personalized app powered by BAMTech would come “with a more user-friendly mobile interface” in providing scores, highlights, stories and podcasts. Machine learning elements can enable the app to determine what someone is interested in and feed them more of it, he said. The app will also provide what the WatchESPN does now with streaming feeds of ESPN’s family of networks along with option to subscribe to the complementary ESPN+. Iger said there would be continued investment in original and exclusive content for the app including live events and programming — plus “even greater personalization” to come.
“The changes will be dramatic, with more compelling visuals, as well as an easy, intuitive interface and exceptional video and sound quality,” Iger said. “Users will also enjoy an increasingly personalized experience as the app blends explicit choices with implicit behavior to curate a unique mix of specific, relevant content tailored to the taste of each individual user.
“And we’re not only excited about it, but, if anything, points to what the future of ESPN looks like.”
Skipper before stepping down emphasized that ESPN’s strategy was ultimately about providing more content.
“ESPN’s history is about launching in 1979 into a world that was starved for more sports in which there were a gigantic total of 2,000 hours of sports available to sports fans in this country,” he said tongue-in-cheek. “Last year, we did 65,000 hours. Next year (2018), we’ll do 90,000 hours. And we do not believe that there is satiation for sports fans who want to watch their teams play — whether it’s a Division III college, whether it’s a volleyball team in Texas, or we met today with a secondary soccer league in this country.
“We think people who are watching games in those markets want to see those games, and we’re going to provide them. We don’t think it’s push-pull. We don’t think it’s anti-cannibalization. We think it’s growing the market and providing us with the platforms to adapt if depending on how the world evolves.”
