In a world where you can get virtually anything streamed online, it looks like there will be another big name joining the party. ESPN has announced that they will start streaming their live network on TV this spring for a fairly low price of $4.99. Their owner, Disney, made the news official when CEO Bob Iger broke the story.
Currently, as long as a sporting event is on ESPN, all you need while viewing it is a login to your network subscriber. This allows you to watch the game anywhere there is an Internet connection. The main draw of this subscription, however; will be the ability to watch many of the sports powerhouses programs on throughout the day that are not live sporting events. That being said, Iger has mentioned the app will give you the ability to watch many more sporting events including baseball, hockey, soccer, and golf among others. Another great feature of the app that should make many fans happy is the ability to stream the famous ’30 for 30’ episodes that have become extremely well-liked over the years.
This move from Disney (DIS) comes at a great time considering how popular online streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu have become. In addition to this ESPN service, Disney has said that they will also want to release their own version of a Netflix type amenity at some point. Whenever that happens, they plan to pull all of their programming from Netflix and keeping it in-house.
After being in the news this past year in a not so positive manner, company-wide layoffs and their president stepping down, it seems ESPN is trying to gain some ground back with this news. More and more will come out in the next 2-3 months, which should open a lot more doors for a company that is trying to keep up with the fast-changing times.