SportsCenter at ESPN headquarters.
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ESPN is coming to Disney+. Now the sports network wants to get Disney+ users to flock to ESPN.
Walt Disney debuted a special ESPN Tile on Disney+ on Wednesday for people who subscribe to ESPN+, the sports streaming platform, to watch programs without leaving the Disney+ application. When ESPN launches its yet-to-be-named “flagship” service next fall, these subscribers will get full access to all ESPN content through the ESPN Tile on Disney+.
Disney makes approximately 100 live games available to Disney+ members without an associated ESPN subscription. Those events include college football and basketball, the National Basketball Association and WNBA, the National Hockey League, Major League Baseball, tennis, golf, the Little League World Series and UFC, ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro said in an interview.
Next week's alternate Simpsons broadcast of the NFL's “Monday Night Football” game between the Cincinnati Bengals and Dallas Cowboys will also be available to Disney+ subscribers, as will five NBA Christmas games.
“If you subscribe to Disney+ now, you'll have access to kids and family, general entertainment if you're a Hulu subscriber, and sports,” Pitaro said. “Our goal is to serve sports fans anytime, anywhere.”
ESPN will also include some of its studio programming — such as “College Gameday,” “Pardon the Interruption” and select podcasts with video — on Disney+ for non-ESPN subscribers. Some ESPN sports-related films and documentaries will also appear on Disney+, depending on which sports season is active, Pitaro said.
ESPN's programming will also be integrated within the Disney+ search, similar to Hulu's integration earlier this year. If a Disney+ subscriber who is not an ESPN customer clicks on something that requires an ESPN subscription, the user will be prompted to sign in within the app.
New content for Disney+
ESPN is also creating two studio shows specifically for Disney+, Pitaro said. The first will be a daily “SportsCenter” specifically for Disney+ subscribers, which will air live on Disney+ at a set time and then remain on the platform for on-demand viewing.
The second is a weekly sports show for women. Both programs are in development and will be made for the more casual sports fan, Pitaro said.
“Our research shows that there is very little overlap between people who watch Disney+ and ESPN linearly,” Pitaro said.
Disney+ has a strong female audience that Pitaro hopes will tune in to the weekly women's show, which he first alluded to in an interview with CNBC Sport in October.
ESPN+ has about 30,000 live games each year and costs $11.99 each month if purchased separately from Disney+. A Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ bundle (with ads) costs $16.99 per month.
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