ESPN+


ESPN+ is an over-the-top video streaming subscription service available in the United States, owned by Walt Disney Direct-to-Consumer & International, in partnership with ESPN Inc., which is a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company and the Hearst Communications. It is one of Disney's three flagship subscription streaming brands in the United States, alongside Disney+ and Hulu.
ESPN+ is marketed as an add-on subscription on top of ESPN's core linear networks, with content similar to or having been exclusively moved to the service from ESPN3, such as combat sports, college sports, cricket, rugby union, soccer, golf and tennis.
The National Hockey League and Major League Baseball's out-of-market sports packages are sold through the platform as add-ons. The service also features archive content and ESPN original documentaries, and access to premium content on ESPN.com.
ESPN+ does not include access to the full ESPN linear channels, as they continue to only be available through "traditional or non-traditional" television providers. Thus, ESPN's major professional sports rights, including National Football League, National Basketball Association, and Major League Baseball coverage, are not included in the service.
As of March 2019, ESPN+ is the exclusive outlet for UFC pay-per-view events, sold for an additional fee. As of February 3, 2020, the service has over 7.6 million paying subscribers.

History

In August 2016, The Walt Disney Company acquired a minority stake in BAMTech, a spin-out of MLB Advanced Media's streaming technology business, for $1 billion, with an option to acquire a majority stake in the future. It was also announced that Disney subsidiary ESPN was planning to develop an over-the-top service based on BAMTech technology as "an exploratory OTT project", drawing primarily from ESPN-owned rights for events not broadcast on television. ESPN already used BAMTech's platform for its TV Everywhere service WatchESPN. Disney CEO Bob Iger remarked that despite declines in the pay television industry due to cord-cutting, "live sports has really thrived, even in a world where there's so much more for people to do and to watch."
In August 2017, Disney invoked its option to acquire a controlling stake in BAMTech, and announced that it planned to launch its ESPN OTT service in 2018, followed by a Disney entertainment OTT service in 2019. At this time, Disney stated that the new ESPN service would draw from ESPN-owned sports rights, as well as MLB, NHL, and Major League Soccer content, and that an accompanying redesign of the ESPN app would make it a "premier digital destination" for sports content. During Disney's fourth-quarter earnings call, Iger revealed that the service would be known as ESPN+. In December 2017, Disney announced its intent to acquire 21st Century Fox after the spin-off of certain businesses. The deal was to include the Fox Sports Networks group of regional sports networks, which led to suggestions that Disney wanted to incorporate FSN's regional sports rights into the service.
In February 2018, Iger stated that ESPN was aiming for a monthly price of $4.99. ESPN+ and BAMTech were placed into the newly formed Disney business segment, Disney Direct-to-Consumer and International, on March 14, 2018. On April 2, 2018, ESPN announced that ESPN+ would officially launch on April 12, 2018, and confirmed its $4.99 per-month pricing.
On August 21, 2018, ESPN announced that it had merged its existing ESPN Insider subscription service into ESPN+, adding access to premium ESPN.com content to the service. Both services shared the same monthly price, but ESPN Insider's existing annual subscribers were grandfathered under its previous $39.99 per-year price, and all former ESPN Insider subscribers continued to receive the complimentary subscription to ESPN The Magazine that was part of the subscription. The magazine ended print publication in September 2019.
On October 31, 2018, ESPN executive Russell Wolff was named executive vice president and general manager.
On August 6, 2019, Disney announced that it will offer a bundle of ESPN+ with Disney+ and the ad-supported Hulu for $12.99 per-month. The bundle will be available on November 12, the same day of the launch of Disney+.
In October 2019, ESPN+ began to add pre-roll advertising to on-demand content on the service.

Programming

Sports rights

The service focuses primarily on overflow content similar to that of ESPN's existing digital service ESPN3, though some of ESPN3's content has been shifted exclusively to ESPN+, such as most Canadian Football League coverage.
Its launch content included boxing, college sports events, coverage of Tennis Grand Slams, as well as international cricket, soccer and rugby union events. In October 2018, ESPN+ obtained the rights for the Swedish Allsvenskan and the Danish Superliga as well, declaring their intent to broadcast one match per week for each league.
ESPN+ features out of market Major League Soccer matches at no additional charge for subscribers, and the service holds exclusive rights to all regionally televised Chicago Fire matches through 2020. MLB.tv and NHL.tv are also available for purchase within the ESPN+ platform, and offer daily games during their regular seasons for ESPN+ subscribers.
PGA Tour Live was included for the 2018 PGA Tour season, but moved to NBC Sports Gold in 2019. ESPN+ will offer supplemental feeds during the PGA Championship beginning 2020, including during CBS broadcast windows. In 2022, PGA Tour Live will return to ESPN+ as part of a new long-term deal with the PGA Tour through 2030.
In March 2019, the American Athletic Conference announced a 12-year media rights deal with ESPN, under which ESPN+ will carry the majority of events not aired by ESPN's linear channels.
In May 2019, it was announced that ESPN+ would carry 18 World TeamTennis matches.
In September 2019, ESPN+ announced its acquisition of rights to Germany's Bundesliga soccer league beginning in 2020, under a six-year deal.

UFC

In May 2018, the Ultimate Fighting Championship announced new five-year digital and linear television rights deals with ESPN, effective January 2019. 20 live UFC on ESPN+ Fight Night events per-year will be streamed exclusively by the service, as well as preliminaries for 10 live UFC on ESPN Fight Night events per-year. ESPN+ will also hold rights to supplemental content such as Dana White's Contender Series, archive content and PPV encores, and offer sales of UFC Fight Pass within the platform. The first ESPN+ event,, generated 525,000 new subscribers on the day of the event alone.
On March 18, 2019, it was announced that ESPN had reached a two-year extension of its contract with the UFC. Beginning at UFC 236, it is also the exclusive U.S. carrier of all UFC pay-per-view events for residential customers. Viewers must have an active ESPN+ subscription in order to purchase future UFC pay-per-views, and they are no longer sold through television providers.

Original programming

ESPN+ also carries ESPN original programming and documentaries, such as the 30 for 30 franchise, and exclusive original series and studio programs: