With Wrestlepalooza Just Days Away, Millions of ESPN TV Subscribers Still Can’t Access the App
Just weeks after signing a blockbuster five-year, $1.6 billion deal, the new partnership between ESPN and the WWE will kick off this weekend with Wrestlepalooza.
The first WWE Premium Live Event broadcast by ESPN on its new streaming platform, Wrestlepalooza, will feature a star-studded card that includes John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar (in his first match in two years), CM Punk, Seth Rollins, and more.
Photo: WWE
While WWE fans are understandably excited, there is one major problem – millions of them will be unable to tune in.
The Promise
When ESPN launched its new streaming platform last month, the Worldwide Leader promised that the direct-to-consumer product would be available to both new streaming subscribers and those who had ESPN as part of their linear television package.
Photo: ESPN
The idea was to reach sports fans, no matter how they consumed their content.
ESPN
Unfortunately, in the lead-up to Wrestlepalooza, ESPN has yet to make good on its promise.
Linear Subscribers Still Can’t Access ESPN’s Streaming App
As of this writing, Xfinity, Dish, Sling, and YouTube TV subscribers still do not have access to the new ESPN app, even if they pay for the network through their linear television package.
That means, WWE fans who want to watch Wrestlepalooza will need to subscribe separately to ESPN’s streaming app (for $30 a month) to watch the big event. This is true even if they already pay for ESPN through cable.
This weekend’s Wrestlepalooza is supposed to be a celebratory debut of ESPN’s new streaming apparatus and a way to kick off their new partnership with the WWE.
Photo: espn.com.au/wwe/
Unless something changes, however, the event may instead serve as a stark reminder of the cost of streaming and the fragmented nature of the current media landscape.
