Sportscent at the ESPN headquarters.
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ESPN arrives at Disney +. Now the sports network wants to ensure that Disney + users come to ESPN.
Walt Disney started a dedicated ESPN tile on Wednesday on Disney + for people who subscribe to ESPN +, its sports streaming platform, To look at the programming without leaving the Disney +application. Next fall, when ESPN is launching its “Lighthouse” service still namedThese subscribers will have full access to all the ESPN content via the ESPN tile on Disney +.
Disney puts around 100 games live available to Disney + members without corresponding ESPN subscription. These events will cover university football and basketball, the National Basketball Association and the WNBA, the National Hockey League, Major League Baseball, Tennis, Golf, Little League World Series and UFC, said the president of ESPN, Jimmy Pitaro, in an interview.
Alternate of next week “Simpsons” tech The NFL “Monday evening footballer” match between the Bengals of Cincinnati and the Dallas Cowboys will also be available for Disney +subscribers, as well as five NBA Christmas games.
“Now, when you subscribe to Disney +, you will have access to children and family, general entertainment if you are a Hulu subscriber and sports,” said Pitaro. “Our goal is to serve sports fans at any time, anywhere.”
ESPN will also include part of its studio programming – such as “College Gameday”, “forgive the interruption” and some podcasts that include video – on Disney + for non -espn subscribers. Some films and documentaries related to ESPN sport will also appear on Disney + married to the active sports season, said Pitaro.
ESPN programming will also be integrated into Disney +research, similar to The integration of Hulu Earlier this year. If a Disney + subscriber who is not an ESPN client clicks on something that requires an ESPN subscription, the user will be invited to register in the application.
New content for Disney +
ESPN also creates two studio programs specifically for Disney +, said Pitaro. The first will be a daily “sportscenter” just for Disney + subscribers, which will be broadcast live on Disney + at a defined time, then will remain on the platform for visualization on demand.
The second is a female sporting program that can be broadcast every week or several times a week. The two programs are in development and will be designed for a more occasional sports fan, said Pitaro.
“Our research shows that there is very little overlap between people who look at Disney + and ESPN linear,” said Pitaro.
Disney + has a solid female audience that hopes Pitaro will connect to the weekly women's show, to which he first alluded In an interview with CNBC Sport in October.
ESPN + has around 30,000 live games each year and costs $ 11.99 per Months when he bought Disney +separately. A Disney +, Hulu and ESPN + bundle (with advertisements) costs $ 16.99 per month.
Disclosure: Comcast, which has NBCUNIVERIVERSAL CNBC, is a co -owner of Hulu.
Watch: CNBC Sport Videocast: President of ESPN Jimmy Pitaro
