{"id":47978,"date":"2025-08-06T14:09:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T14:09:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/47978\/"},"modified":"2025-08-06T14:09:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T14:09:11","slug":"espn-streaming-service-sets-launch-date-price-adds-wwe-nfl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/47978\/","title":{"rendered":"ESPN Streaming Service Sets Launch Date & Price, Adds WWE & NFL"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tESPN<\/a> will launch its long-awaited new streaming<\/a> service on August 21 at a price of $29.99 a month, bulking it up with WWE<\/a> events and expanded NFL<\/a> rights.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Disney<\/a> sports division made the announcements as the company was reporting its quarterly earnings <\/a>Wednesday morning. The moves follow confirmation of a landmark deal between the NFL and ESPN<\/a>, which sees the league taking a 10% equity stake in ESPN in exchange for control of the NFL Network and other NFL Media properties.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe WWE\u2019s live events, including marquee titles like WrestleMania and SummerSlam, will head to ESPN platforms starting in 2026 after a five-year run on NBCUniversal\u2019s Peacock.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe NFL Draft, a mainstay on ESPN that has grown into a major viewership draw in recent years, has also been given a long-term extension by the partners. <\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: Hulu To Become International Tile On Disney+, Replacing Star<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tSeparately, ESPN and the NFL have reached an agreement that spans ESPN\u2019s DTC service and Disney+. The agreement includes\u00a0rights for additional NFL content for ESPN as well as interactive features. ESPN\u2019s new streaming service will also carry select out-of-market NFL preseason games during the 2025 and 2026 seasons. ESPN will also be able to sell and bundle NFL+ Premium, the League\u2019s DTC service that launched in 2022, with ESPN\u2019s DTC service, which gives fans the ability to watch NFL Network and NFL RedZone through NFL+ Premium.<\/p>\n

\n\tJimmy Pitaro, Chairman, ESPN saluted the WWE\u2019s \u201cimmense, devoted and passionate fanbase\u201d and said carrying premium live events from the wrestling circuit would help \u201cdrive our streaming future.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tMark Shapiro, President and Chief Operating Officer of WWE parent TKO Group Holdings, said the deal comes at\u00a0\u201can exciting juncture\u201d in ESPN\u2019s streaming rollout. WWE fare, he added, is \u201cexactly the type of rich storytelling, incredible feats of athleticism and can\u2019t-miss, cultural tentpole experiences that have become synonymous with ESPN.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tESPN and TKO have a years-long relationship thanks to a UFC rights deal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ESPN will launch its long-awaited new streaming service on August 21 at a price of $29.99 a month,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47979,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,437,794,593,85,2708,14064],"class_list":["post-47978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-disney","tag-espn","tag-nfl","tag-sports","tag-streaming","tag-wwe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}