Five months after ESPN launched ESPN+, the streaming service has logged more than 1 million paid subscribers, the network said. The number of initial subs is higher than most analyst estimates and its early growth compares favorably to other direct-to-consumer offerings. For example, it took WWE Network 11 months to reach the 1 million sub mark. Some of ESPN+’s early growth can be attributed to an August decision to combine ESPN Insider and ESPN+. ESPN would not say how many subs ESPN Insider -- a service that had been around for 20 years -- had at the time of the merge, but a spokesperson did say that the number of Insider subs "account for a minority of the total (significantly so)." Growth also can be traced to sports that it carries exclusively, such as international soccer, boxing and college football games. ESPN+ is an important initiative for ESPN, which has spent the past few years dealing with higher rights fees combined with a smaller subscriber base. The launch of a direct-to-consumer service for $4.99 per month was an attempt to combat cord cutting, and the impressed subscriber growth so far suggests that ESPN will continue to invest heavily in buying sports rights for it.
