We've been hearing for awhile that Disney is readying an ESPN a la carte offering that doesn't require a cable subscription.
On Disney's earnings call Tuesday, CEO Bob Iger sketched out what it will actually be like.
The short story is that the service will include content that ESPN, and new $1 billion Disney investment BAMTech, had already licensed but weren't actually putting on the air. That means games and related content from the MLB, NHL, college football and basketball, tennis, ruby, cricket, and so on. But nothing that is playing on ESPN when you flip on the channel.
Because that encompasses a whole heap of content, Iger said that service would be customizable, with dynamic pricing depending on what you want access to. Disney will launch the service, which will carry the ESPN branding, "probably" by the end of the year, though Iger didn't lock down a specific date.
Iger stressed that the goal wasn't to somehow compete with ESPN's other offerings, but to wring as much value from already-licensed content as possible.
Earlier this year, ESPN president John Skipper admitted his company had been hurt by people ditching cable.
As of the end of 2015, ESPN had lost about 7 million subscribers in the previous two years. That means ESPN left an estimated $1.3 billion in subscriber revenue on the table in 2015, compared with what it would have made with steady cable company growth.
