For about a year now Disney has been talking about a standalone subscription streaming service for ESPN. During the recent earnings call with Disney we got new details about the ESPN standalone streaming service.
The Good News
The new standalone ESPN streaming service will include about 10,000 live regional, national, and international sporting events every year. The service will be delivered through an “enhanced” version of its WatchESPN app with BAMTech powering the back end of the service.
BAMTech is the company Disney recently purchased that powers many popular sports apps including MLB.TV.
The Bad News
The bad news is it looks like the service has been delayed. Disney is now planning to launch the service in early 2018. No explanation for the 2018 release date was given, and it could be anything from contract delays with sports groups to issues getting the back end ready.
We also still do not know what sports will be included with the service. What we do know is it will not include content currently on ESPN channels. So don’t expect any NFL or NBA games to be part of the service at launch.
If you want a live feed of ESPN’s current channels you will still need to subscribe to a service like DIRECTV NOW, PlayStation Vue, or Sling TV.
For now we need to wait to see what the pricing will be and, more importantly, what sports you will be able to watch with the new service.
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