Yesterday, Disney announced its quarterly earnings results and there was also some interesting information that CEO Bob Iger told CNBC. Iger said that the company plans to price its standalone streaming service of ESPN at $4.99 per month for everyone interested.
So far, what we know about ESPN Plus is that it will include “10,000 live regional, national, and international games and events a year.” This will include NHL, MLB and MLS games, and Igor added that it will arrive along with a relaunch of the ESPN app this spring. So be on the lookout.
The basic idea is to reach out to cord-cutters and cord-never, in hopes that they’re still into sports you wouldn’t normally catch on cable broadcasts (such as college games, Grand Slam Tennis, Boxing, Rugby, Golf and Cricket), and will also include access to its library of 30 for 30 documentaries.
The service will be available on “iOS, Android, tvOS and Chromecast” when it launches, with support for other platforms coming soon after. For the new ESPN app, we expect it to include a more personalized experience with usual relevant scores and highlights next to streaming versions of ESPN’s cable broadcasts and podcasts.
When ESPN Plus launches, it will be the first push for Disney before its Disney-branded service launches in 2019. During the earnings call, Iger said that Disney is currently developing “a few” Star Wars series for the new app, and is close to unveiling one of the projects soon.
