ESPN Will Be Fully Available on Disney+ Next Year

Disney CEO Bob Iger said that the eagerly awaited ESPN standalone streaming service will be added to Disney+ in the fall of 2025. The announcement was made in a CNBC interview on Thursday. The service, which was first announced in 2023, will give viewers access to “the full suite” of the ESPN network.

Drawing similarities with the Hulu and Disney+ one-app integration model, Iger said that subscribers to ESPN and Disney+ would be able to enjoy both services’ content without switching out of either platform.

The new standalone offering is expected to be much bigger than the 2024 joint sports streaming venture of Disney-ESPN, FOX, and Warner Brothers-Discovery.

According to Iger, the new sports offering is “a one‐stop sports destination unlike anything available in the marketplace today.” The standalone service will cover live sports events and studio programming from the NFL, NBA, NASCAR, FIFA, PGA Tour, UFC, and college sports.

With the new app-based service, viewers would be able to enjoy a more “user-friendly, immersive, and personalized” experience. They would have access to ESPN Bet and fantasy sports, in addition to shopping and detailed sports stats.

Disney already offers ESPN+ as an alternative to the traditional cable package. With the existing service, viewers can stream live games but not the network’s live TV channels. There was no announcement from Disney regarding the continuation or cessation of ESPN+ after the 2025 launch of its standalone sports streaming service.

There is currently no official announcement regarding the pricing of the new standalone sports streaming service. However, Iger did say that the pricing would be “substantially less expensive” than the typical cable and satellite bundle. The pricing is also expected to be much lower than the 2024 joint venture streaming service, which subscribers can bundle with their existing Disney+, Hulu, and Max subscriptions.