ESPN goes ‘plus’ with new sports streaming service
Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger has revealed few — but telling — details about a long-awaited ESPN sports streaming service.
ESPN+, or ESPN Plus, is the name of the sport channel's standalone streaming platform, Iger said in a Thursday earnings call. (Disney owns ESPN.)
We also now know that the platform will be coming in the spring, possibly in late March, and we'll have more details like pricing and what it'll look like in the new year.
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Back in August, Disney gave barely any details about the streaming service other than it was coming out in 2018. Now we know that the platform will offer ESPN content (like live regional, national, and international sporting events) even if you don't have an ESPN package or a cable provider. And it will have ads, so brace for commercials during sports coverage.
The streaming service update follows a reported big layoff coming to ESPN after Thanksgiving.
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That round of layoffs is expected to hit "digital and technology staffers," according to Sports Illustrated, which doesn't make a lot of sense with new technology like the streaming service coming from the sports network.
But this question remains: is it "ESPN+" or "ESPN Plus"?
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Guess we'll find out in 2018.
Topics Disney
Sasha is a news writer at Mashable's San Francisco office. She's an SF native who went to UC Davis and later received her master's from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She's been reporting out of her hometown over the years at Bay City News (news wire), SFGate (the San Francisco Chronicle website), and even made it out of California to write for the Chicago Tribune. She's been described as a bookworm and a gym rat.
