About a year ago ESPN announced it would be releasing a new streaming service for cord cutters. Now this service won’t carry current ESPN channels but will offer additional sports coverage and will launch in 2018.
Now we are starting to get some hints at what sports it will carry. According to the Wall Street Journal, ESPN has struck a deal to stream games from Major League Baseball (MLB) and the National Hockey League (NHL). These sports will join everything from esports to cycling as part of ESPN’s new streaming service.
Details of how many games will be streamed have not been announced but the deal won’t likely start until the 2018 seasons.
ESPN is hoping that its new subscription streaming service will help turn the tide of dropping subscriber numbers. Since August 2016 ESPN has lost 2.8 million subscribers according to Nielsen.
“As sports has evolved, we have an opportunity now to speak to a wider audience than just necessarily men,” said Ed Erhardt, president of global sales and marketing at ESPN. “Today’s sports fan is more diverse, clearly more female [and] more interested in a wide variety of sports.”
It seems that ESPN is hoping that this new streaming service will be the answer to changing viewing habits in the United States. However, if you want access to the current ESPN channels you will need a service such as Sling TV, PlayStation Vue, DIRECTV NOW, or Hulu.
ESPN has been rumored to be in talks to add other sports to its new streaming service; however, at this time no details have been announced.
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