EXCLUSIVE: In the latest streaming milestone, ESPN and Fox are forming a bundle of their soon-to-launch services, Deadline has learned.
Fox One, which brings together sports, news and entertainment from across Fox’s broadcast and cable channels, and ESPN’s dramatically beefed-up direct-to-consumer offering are both launching on August 21. Fox One is priced at $19.99 a month and ESPN has an introductory price of $29.99.
The bundle will launch October 2 and cost $39.99 a month, according to a person familiar with the rollout.
The team-up is the latest example of third-party bundling, but the first notable package involving major sports rights holders. Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery launched a combo last year of HBO Max, Disney+ and Hulu, with both companies indicating it has gained a degree of traction. Consumers are being confronted by significant price increases and overwhelming choice in the marketplace.
While sports is the connective tissue between Fox One and ESPN, the former will also include programming from the Fox broadcast network and local stations as well as Fox News, Fox Business and Fox Weather. For an avid sports fan, given that ESPN offers marquee fare like the NFL, NBA and major college conferences, the bundle could be combined with Paramount+ and NBCUniversal’s Peacock to offer fairly comprehensive reach below the price of most pay-TV packages.
Execs at Disney and Fox have described their respective new outlets as complements to their linear business. Programmers across the industry are adjusting their strategies as the traditional bundle keeps shrinking. “We are ultimately going to judge ourselves based on the totality of people subscribing to ESPN,” ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro said at a May press event for the new service. “We are not going to look at one specific platform.”
Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch has said that pricing for Fox One will be “healthy” and in line with wholesale rates charged to pay-TV distributors. Bundling, he said last May, is also a priority.
Disney and Fox were partners, along with WBD, in the ill-fated Venu Sports, a joint streaming venture that was scrapped last January before it ever launched after an antitrust lawsuit by pay-TV operator Fubo. Some of Venu’s infrastructure, which cost the JV partners tens of millions of dollars to develop, is being repurposed for Fox One. Pete Distad, who was heading up Venu, joined Fox earlier this year as CEO of Fox One.
“Working with Fox One on this bundle offer allows us to bring ESPN’s world-class sports content to even more fans in a seamless and innovative way,” Sean Breen, EVP, Disney Platform Distribution, said in a statement. “This collaboration reflects our shared commitment to delivering premium experiences across platforms and meeting consumers where they are – anytime, anywhere.”
Forming the bundle “is evidence of our desire to deliver the best possible value and viewing experience to our shared customers,” said Tony Billetter, SVP, Strategy and Business Development, Fox Direct to Consumer. Fox, he added, continues to seek “opportunities to streamline the user experience, especially for the ultimate sports fan.”
The ESPN direct-to-consumer offering is available for pay-TV subscribers whose packages include ESPN. It offers all of ESPN’s linear networks as well as ESPN on ABC, ESPN+, SECN+, and ACCNX, spanning some 47,000 live events a year as well as studio shows and original programming. NFL content on the app is also expanding via a deal announced last week between the league and Disney.
Along with the Fox broadcast network, cable’s FS1, FS2 and Big Ten Network, Fox One offers add-on subscriptions to Fox Nation and Big Ten premium outlet B1G+.
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