Disney sets date for ESPN tile to be added to Disney+

On By Littum

Disney is adding an ESPN chip to Disney+ on December 4, giving subscribers to its “trio” streaming package access to ESPN+ content when on Disney+.

The move, signaled by the company last spring, follows a similar initiative with Hulu earlier this year. It precedes the arrival of ESPN’s “flagship” streaming service, which will include the full suite of live programming from all ESPN networks. The expected date for this launch remains early fall 2025.

While subscribers to the “trio” package that combines Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ will see the most benefit from the addition of tiles, Disney says it plans to make “select” ESPN programming available to all Disney+ subscribers.

CEO Bob Iger and CFO Hugh Johnston revealed the date of the addition of the ESPN tile in their executive commentary about the company’s financial fourth quarter. Earlier this morning, Disney released its quarterly numbers, with Disney+ adding 4.4 million new core subscribers over the previous quarter, surpassing 120 million. The streaming service was launched almost five years ago, on November 19, 2019.

The flagship experience in the ESPN app, Iger and Johnson said, will offer viewers “an enhanced array of innovative digital features that create a sports destination unlike anything available in the market today.”

The goal of the flagship rollout will be to reduce churn and increase engagement, opening up new advertising opportunities. On the advertising front, executives said more than half of new subscribers to Disney+ come in through its ad-supported tier, which launched in December 2022.

Iger and Johnston said the addition of the Hulu and ESPN tiles represents an effort to bring together “the ultimate collection of high-quality content for every member of the household” on Disney+. As much as it has grown globally in the five years since its debut, Disney+ has historically been limited by the narrowness of its programming and the fact that some viewers visit only occasionally, as reflected in Nielsen’s monthly Gauge reports. Typically, Disney+ captures about a third of Netflix’s share of viewers via a TV, and also lags behind Amazon Prime Video.