By Lisa Richwine
LOS ANGELES -Walt Disney's ESPN will deliver its full range of sports programming outside of pay TV for the first time starting on Thursday, when the network debuts an app designed to be a hub for live games and personalized news, stats and highlights.
The ESPN app is Disney's effort to capture some of the tens of millions of customers that the pioneering sports channel has lost since 2010 during the streaming TV revolution.
ESPN executives said they have tailored the new offering,
which is far broader than the limited ESPN+ app launched in 2018, to cater to the tastes of today's sports fans.
"We know that fans don't just want to watch," ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro told reporters. "They want an experience. They want to interact."
The app will offer more than 47,000 live events each year from the NFL, NBA, WNBA, NHL, college football, tennis, golf and other sports. It will cost $30 per month. An introductory offer will include ad-supported versions of the Disney+ and Hulu streaming services for free.
Fans can enter their favorite teams and sports for customization such as a personalized version of the "SportsCenter" news and recap show. Artificial intelligence will generate narration based on the voices of ESPN anchors.
A new feature called "Verts," or scroll-ready, vertical video highlights, also can be tailored. Stats for a user's fantasy players will be displayed next to live games. And an ESPN Bet tab will show live, settled and upcoming bets for users who have linked their betting accounts.
Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger has called the app "a sports fan's dream."
Industry analysts see it as a chance for the company to pick up fans who do not subscribe to cable, and they do not expect it will pull masses from pay TV. ESPN was available in 100 million homes through pay TV in 2010. In July of this year, that number stood at about 61 million.
"It's another step in Disney's pivot to (streaming) and the importance to streaming to the overall company," said MoffettNathanson analyst Robert Fishman.
ESPN will promote the app extensively. Actor John Cena will star in commercials that stress "All of ESPN. All in One Place."
Pay television will "remain a big part" of ESPN's business, Pitaro said. For the quarter that ended in June, ESPN accounted for $1 billion of Disney's $4.6 billion in operating income, or nearly 22%. Most of ESPN's revenue came from fees paid by cable and satellite distributors and from advertising.
Subscribers to pay TV will have access to the new ESPN app. Pitaro said the company hoped to drive all of its customers to the app "because that's by far the best, the most holistic experience."
(Reporting by Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
