ESPN on Disney+: Mega deal to stream ESPN sports in Australia and New Zealand revealed

Disney has struck a blow against Foxtel and its sports streaming platform, Kayo, with the announcement it will soon add ESPN to Disney+.

The move will see sports coverage on ESPN, which includes popular American codes NBA, NHL, MLB and NFL, be made available on Disney’s streaming platform, which costs $13.99 for the standard tier and $17.99 for the premium, compared to the cost of a Kayo subscription which ranges from $25 to $40 a month.

There’s no concrete timeline for when ESPN will be folded into Disney+, only that it will be in the “coming months”. Australia and New Zealand will be the first English-speaking territory outside of North America to have ESPN integrated into the streamer.

Currently, ESPN and ESPN 2 work as live linear channels on Foxtel’s set-top box or on Kayo, as well as a subscription channel on OTT service Fetch.

Other sports include American college basketball, WNBA, American college football, UFC, X Games and World Series of Poker.

Foxtel could continue to licence the ESPN channels after their launch on Disney+, but for price-conscious customers who didn’t find other value on Kayo or Foxtel, it may no longer make sense.

According to figures from Telsyte released in September, Disney+ has 3.1 million subscribers to Kayo’s 1.6 million.

Sports rights has shaped up to be the next contest in the streaming space with Amazon Prime Video and Netflix already spending big to attract audiences.

Netflix has made significant moves into live sports with a $US5 billion, 10-year deal with WWE for the rights to its Raw shows. According to its own metrics, the debut episode racked up 4.9 million live views. It also claimed a boxing match in which Jake Paul and Mike Tyson were the main event, reached 108 million globally.

This week, reports emerged that Netflix was considering pursuing Formula 1 broadcast rights, but only in the US for now. The streamer has grown the fanbase of the motorsport in North America after seven seasons of its docuseries, Formula 1: Drive to Survive.

In Australia, Prime Video snatched up the rights to all major International Cricket Council (ICC) tournaments including Cricket World Cups, T20 World Cups, the Champions Trophy and the World Test Championship Final.

In a global deal, which includes Australia, Prime also just nabbed the exclusive rights to 66 NBA games.

Local streamer Stan has positioned itself as the home of rugby union with rights to Six Nations and the Bledisloe Cup, as well the four major tennis grand slams.

The ESPN move also comes at a pivotal moment in Foxtel’s history. The Australian pay-TV business is set to be acquired by sports streaming service DAZN, which is privately owned and backed by British-American billionaire Leonard Blavatnik.

The $3.4 billion DAZN deal, which is expected to be completed before the end of the financial year, reflects Foxtel’s future as a primarily sports-focused business.

In August, Foxtel reported 4.6 million paid subscribers across the group, which also includes its entertainment streaming platform, Binge.

Binge is also set to undergo a shake-up with the launch of Warner Bros’ Max streaming service in Australia, likely to be in April. Foxtel has had a long-standing deal with WB for HBO programs and has previously marketed itself as the home of the prestige TV brand in Australia.

With Max soon to be available directly to Australian audiences, Foxtel is expected to lose the HBO rights. While it’s not confirmed what those arrangements will look like (is it the entire library or are some titles grandfathered), marketing newsletter Unmade reported last week reported it is expected that everything will migrate to Max.

If the rumoured April date holds true, it would likely happen between the season three finale of The White Lotus on April 6 and the launch of the second season of The Last of Us, which is slated for April.

Foxtel has been approached for comment.