ESPN's new streaming app could replace cable for some but may end up costing them more

A tv camera is viewed during an ESPN broadcast of a WNBA hoops crippled betwixt the Connecticut Sun and the Minnesota Lynx connected July 26, 2020, successful Bradenton, Fla. ESPN is launching a caller streaming work astatine $29.99 per month. Phelan M. Ebenhack/AP hide caption

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Phelan M. Ebenhack/AP

As if you needed 1 much streaming service, ESPN is yet getting acceptable to rotation retired its long-anticipated subscription plan. But are sports fans acceptable to ammunition retired different $29.99 a month?

The caller app, besides named ESPN, volition see unrecorded sports and programming connected ESPN's different networks. Consumers besides volition beryllium capable to bundle ESPN with ad-supported versions of Disney+ and Hulu, which are each nether the Disney umbrella, for $35.99.

ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro said successful a statement that helium hopes the terms offerings "will assistance fans chopped done the clutter, and supply them compelling options to entree each our content."

Although this streaming work has been highly anticipated by sports fans, analysts are skeptical connected whether this volition beryllium a much cost-effective enactment to ticker the large games.

Michael Pachter, a probe expert astatine Wedbush Securities, a fiscal services firm, says portion this mightiness beryllium an charismatic enactment for azygous viewers oregon viewers without cable, the outgo of aggregate streaming services tin adhd up. He says families could chopped cablegram and wage $29.99 for sports, but they'd inactive beryllium paying for different subscriptions to ticker each the TV shows and movies they want.

The mean U.S. household spends astir $69 a period connected streaming services, according to Deloitte's 2025 media trends report. That's little than the mean monthly cablegram measure — astir $122 a month, according to a study from Allconnect, a work examination platform.

"What ends up happening is that radical bash successful information subscribe to these idiosyncratic channels but we can't fig retired the close bundle," helium says.

And for those looking to watercourse ESPN, the sports transmission is already disposable arsenic portion of Fubo's streaming work for $84.99 a period and YouTube TV, which runs $82.99 a month.

ESPN has seen a diminution successful subscribers from some cablegram and streaming successful the past year. According to Disney's 2024 yearly report, home subscription gross was down 1% compared to 2023. For streaming work ESPN+ subscribers were down 2%.