By Angela Palumbo
Walt Disney's new ESPN streaming app launched on Thursday, giving sports fans something to cheer for, but potentially spelling trouble for traditional cable providers.
The direct-to-consumer platform is available in either the ESPN Unlimited Plan or the ESPN Select Plan. Unlimited subscribers will pay $29.99 a month and get access to all of ESPN's linear networks and 47,000 live events a year.
The Select Plan costs $11.99 a month and brings subscribers access to all content on the streaming platform, plus more than 32,000 live sports events annually. There's also an option for users to bundle Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN unlimited for $29.99 a month for the first year. Plus, traditional cable customers will have access to the streaming app.
Disney's launch of this new streaming platform could hasten the shift away from traditional T.V. as fewer people may want to pay for cable if they can get access to all their favorite content through different streaming providers.
Research firm Nielsen reported that streaming usage overtook the combined share of broadcast and cable for the first time ever in May. Nielsen's most recent report in August showed the streaming viewership's portion of TV watch-time continued to shine.
Investors have been paying attention to this shift. Shares of Comcast have dropped 11% this year while Charter Communications is down 23%.
The next several months will be key across the television landscape as the industry enters football season and the new broadcast year, said Brian Fuhrer, senior vice president of product strategy at Nielsen, in the August report.
"While we have seen streaming expand its reach and depth this summer, the impact of fall sports and the ability of multi-platform companies to leverage that impact may be the most critical variable for future success," Fuhrer said.
Entertainment companies have been focusing on bringing live sporting events to their streaming services over the past few years as a potential driver of subscriber growth. Amazon.com is the only place NFL fans can catch Thursday Night Football each week, and viewers will need access to a Netflix account if they want to catch all of the Christmas games this year.
Disney has also made several new deals with sport entertainment companies. On Aug. 5, it announced that ESPN will acquire NFL Network and other media assets owned and controlled by the NFL in exchange for a 10% equity stake in ESPN. Then on Aug. 6, Disney said ESPN platforms, including the new ESPN streaming service, will become the exclusive U.S. domestic home of all WWE Premium Live Events, starting in 2026.
"The new ESPN DTC service will be a robust offering, with multiview, commerce, betting, personalization and many more features. This should be a key contributor to sports growth in FY26 and beyond," BofA Securities analyst Jessica Reif Ehrlich wrote in a note on Aug. 6.
She rates Disney as a Buy with a $140 price target.
Some analysts aren't as enthusiastic.
"We have been very skeptical on ESPN streaming, as we question whether sports fans will pay for a service that only shows ESPN/ABC games and does not include the majority of nationally televised sports shown on CBS, NBC, FOX, and TNT/TBS," Raymond James analyst Ric Prentiss wrote on Wednesday.
He rates Disney as Market Perform without a price target.
It will be some time before it is clear if this latest streaming venture is a home run for Disney. Meanwhile, investors will keep an eye on what the move toward sports streaming means for linear T.V.
Write to Angela Palumbo at angela.palumbo@dowjones.com
This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
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August 21, 2025 13:57 ET (17:57 GMT)
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