Earlier this year, Disney announced that it would integrate ESPN into the Disney Plus app. This was supposed to offer some live sports and other ESPN Plus content, with more on offer for the people who subscribed to both services. Now, it seems that this mixing of the brands has finally started.
An ESPN tile has been added to Disney Plus’s home screen alongside the Hulu tile that was added back at the start of the year. Like the Hulu tile, which is the fastest way to access Hulu shows and movies, this effectively replaces the standalone ESPN Plus app. So subscribers don’t have to leave Disney Plus and find another app to watch Disney-owned sports coverage.
Naturally, this means you will need a subscription to ESPN Plus if you want to benefit from this change. According to Disney, you’ll have access to 30,000 live sports events, 6,000 hours of original ESPN content and over 100 hours of studio shows — all within the Disney Plus app.
Meanwhile, those of you who only subscribe to Disney Plus will also have your pots sweetened. You can access a “selection of timely ESPN Plus content,” including live events, original programming and studio shows. It’s uncharacteristically generous of Disney, which isn’t known for giving stuff away, but I guess it is an excellent way to advertise ESPN Plus to a new group of people.
Disney also used this moment to confirm that a proper ESPN streaming service is coming next fall. By “proper,” I mean that this will be the streaming equivalent of ESPN’s cable channel and everything currently available on a cable box. That content will also likely come to Disney Plus at some point, but without all the extra features and experiences CEO Bob Iger announced back in February.
But that’s a discussion for the future. Right now, ESPN Plus is all that’s on offer, and it’s available in Disney Plus to anyone with a valid subscription for both services who is subscribed to Disney’s Trio streaming bundle or has separate subscriptions tied to the same Disney account.
