Disney will launch its first streaming subscription service, ESPN Plus, in the spring.
Getty ImagesDisney’s first subscription streaming service — a sports-video app dubbed ESPN Plus — will cost $4.99 a month and launch in the spring, while a Netflix-like service for its movies is slated to arrive in late 2019, Disney CEO Bob Iger said Tuesday.
The services are the vanguard of Disney’s transition into a digital-forward giant. Facing down battles with deep-pocketed tech companies like Netflix, Amazon and Apple that are pouring money into original movies and shows, Disney and other traditional entertainment companies are circling wagons around their own media properties and figuring out how to make them available online on their own terms.
ESPN Plus will launch as part of a redesign of the ESPN network’s app. The new service is meant to provide thousands of live events for sports and match-ups that aren’t on the main channels, Iger said. That will include Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer, National Hockey League, rugby, golf, cricket and other games. The service will also provide access to stream ESPN films and other exclusive programming.
The service will be available on both Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android mobile device systems, as well as on Apple TV and Google’s Chromecast streaming-media device.
For all users, the ESPN app redesign will introduce a different user interface to continue showing off scores, sports highlights and podcasts. For people who subscribe to a traditional cable or satellite package that includes ESPN, the app will stream its networks.
Previously, Disney has said that its Netflix competitor would arrive sometime next year and that it would be priced substantially below Netflix, where the most popular tier costs about $12 a month. In August, Iger said Disney would end a deal that gave Netflix its most-popular movies, aiming to funnel them to its own streaming video service instead.
