How the ESPN/FOX One Bundle Came Together So Quickly
From the ashes of Venu Sports, the ill-fated streaming service that would have seen Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. team up, a new streaming bundle has been born.
The new ESPN/FOX One bundle has officially launched today, providing sports fans with a new way to watch their favorite teams.
Photo: Fox
Costing $39.99, which is only $10 more than either service costs individually, the new streaming bundle is the result of the partnership between Fox and Disney that has continued to bloom.
Photo: ESPN
“We are in a little bit of a crawl/walk/run here,” John Lasker, SVP of ESPN Direct-to-Consumer, told Deadline. “Especially being in the aftermath of massive product launches on both sides.”
The Legacy of Venu Sports
As both the ESPN direct-to-consumer app and FOX One are in their infant stages, both companies are taking things slow.
Venu
Luckily, the work on Venu Sports laid the foundation for the new bundle to come together quickly.
“We certainly weren’t starting from scratch,” Tony Billeter, SVP of Strategy & Planning for Fox One, said in an interview.
Photo: Disney
“The existing relationship was there. Some of the technology enablement was there. So, it made it a little bit more seamless to be able to actually stand this up in a reasonably short amount of time.”
Consumers Win
In the end, the company’s goal was to make the sports landscape more manageable for consumers.
ESPN
“Broadly speaking, sports has been sort of a frustrating experience for consumers,” Billeter said. “With fragmented rights and dozens of streaming options as opposed to the unified pay-TV bundle, he added, “our goal was to try to find a unique, complementary partner to help us start to piece together for a fan and make it a little bit easier for them to get access to a broad range of sports.”
Photo: ESPN
The ESPN/Fox One bundle is available now.
