A version of this article first appeared in the CNBC Sport newsletter with Alex Sherman, which brings you the biggest news and exclusive interviews from the worlds of sports business and media. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox. Holy cow, there’s a lot going on in the world of media and sports this week, and most of it involves ESPN. Disney’s ESPN made three major announcements this week: 1. It’s selling a 10% equity stake to the NFL in exchange for the NFL Network, the linear (but not the digital) NFL RedZone network, and some smaller NFL media assets. ESPN will need to wait for “various approvals including by the NFL team owners and customary closing conditions” before it’s official, the league and Disney said in a press release . 2. ESPN is paying an average of $325 million a year for the next five years for WWE’s premium live events – the annual staples being WrestleMania, Royal Rumble, SummerSlam, Survivor Series, Money in the Bank and Elimination Chamber. Other PLEs, such as Bad Blood or Clash at the Castle, will rotate in and out depending on the theme or location of the event. The deal will begin in 2026. 3. ESPN’s direct-to-consumer service – the $29.99 “give me everything ESPN has to offer” digital product – will launch on Aug. 21, in time for the start of the NFL season. ESPN has been waiting for years to debut its new flagship service. It’s the first time ever that ESPN’s valuable programming will be available without a cable subscription. That’s exciting for Disney and its executives. It’s also exciting for the unknown number of non-cable subscribers who want to pay for ESPN. Quite a few of these people likely already subscribe to the Disney bundle of Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+, which is why Disney is throwing in Disney+ and Hulu for free to anyone who pays $29.99 per month for ESPN out of the gate. Also, for most people, this new product is probably utterly confusing. I wrote about this already once, way back in March. At the time, I explained the main point of puzzlement will be that pay TV subscribers who already get ESPN will receive the direct-to-consumer application for free. They won’t need to spend $29.99 per month extra for it. This point came to a head with the WWE announcement on Wednesday. Professional wrestling fans want to know – if I subscribe to ESPN, do I also need to pay $29.99 per month for the streaming service? Will I need to pay more money, like the old pay-per-view model? Will I get the premium events with ESPN+, the existing, less expensive add-on app that will remain after the flagship debut? I’m here to help. Pay attention, there will be a quiz at the end of class. And some of this information hasn’t been reported … before now. Anyone who currently pays for a bundle of TV networks that includes ESPN will eventually get ESPN’s direct-to-consumer service for no extra charge. You’ll download (or click on) the ESPN application on your mobile device or smart TV. There will be a login screen that asks you if you’re a pay TV subscriber. You’ll then be able to authenticate that you do, in fact, pay for traditional pay TV and get ESPN in your bundle. Once you authenticate, you’ll get access to the new ESPN direct-to-consumer product with everything in it. That means that starting in 2026, you’ll get access to all the WWE premium live events, as well as everything else that’s on ESPN – “Monday Night Football,” NBA games, etc. You won’t get NFL Network yet – that deal needs to close first. But once it does, then NFL Network and the games that air on it will be integrated into the direct-to-consumer service, too. The WWE live events won’t be available on ESPN+. You’ll need to upgrade to the $29.99 ESPN product. But, again, just to be clear – if you’re a cable subscriber that gets ESPN, you’ll get it for no extra charge. And ESPN will not charge an additional fee for the live events. No return to pay-per-view here, like ESPN has done with some UFC events on ESPN+. Now comes the new stuff – and the confusing part: I’m told not every pay-TV provider will be listed on Aug. 21, when the application launches. That’s because ESPN doesn’t have up-to-date carriage agreements with all of the largest pay TV providers. These deals are staggered over multiple years. Some have happened recently, others haven’t. So, here’s what I can tell you: Disney has been able to get authentication rights from Charter, DirecTV, Hulu + Live TV, Fubo, Verizon Fios and some smaller pay TV operators. That means ESPN’s direct-to-consumer product will not initially be available for Comcast Xfinity customers, YouTube TV subscribers, Dish satellite TV customers, Sling TV users or Cox cable subscribers. I’m told discussions with all of these pay TV providers are ongoing, and Disney hopes to have most of them done by the end of the year. It’s still unclear to me at this point if Disney can accelerate some of these discussions if their pay TV carriage renewals aren’t until 2026. Long-term, ESPN plans to have authentication deals with every major pay TV distributor. Disney doesn’t want existing cable customers leaving the bundle just because ESPN is now available outside of it. But when the application is ready for showtime on Aug. 21, there are going to be a bunch of pay TV subscribers who aren’t going to get their authentication access that they’re paying for. It’s possible this may lead to some pay TV distribution swapping. In other words, if I’m a YouTube TV subscriber and I want ESPN’s direct-to-consumer product now, maybe I switch to DirecTV or Charter, if I live in that territory. I’m told that when ESPN does reach a deal with these pay TV operators, subscribers will receive an email from the distributor notifying them that they now have access. This isn’t the most consumer-friendly of situations. There will be some people out there who pay for ESPN, don’t have authentication access on Aug. 21, spend the $29.99 for ESPN’s direct-to-consumer service, and then later receive authentication rights who don’t cancel and end up essentially double-paying for a service they’d get for free. The WWE may have had The Attitude Era, but the next few weeks and months may be The Confusion Era for ESPN. *** One other note – I spoke with NFL Executive Vice President of Media Distribution Hans Schroeder about why ESPN is only getting three games instead of the full seven that appeared on NFL Network this past season. Schroeder admitted the league could look to boost revenue with those four additional games, though he said he hasn’t really started thinking about how best to deploy them, given the transaction with ESPN hasn’t closed yet. Still, he did give some hints. “We have a lot of variables to think about,” Schroeder said. “We want to make sure Sunday afternoon is strong. We want to make sure we’re solving for the international needs – if we expand more game distribution there and how we do that with some of that inventory.” But he also acknowledged something I hadn’t heard a league executive say before – that the idea to give Disney multiple “Monday Night Football” games has been a failure. Schroeder told me the league and ESPN initially wanted to create “Super Monday Nights,” where three times a year, there would be two games that run concurrently – one on ABC and one on ESPN. And it hasn’t really worked. “What we’ve seen now over the past couple of years is whether it’s a fan adoption issue, or confusion, whatever it is, we probably get to a similar audience by putting up a single game and simulcasting it on ABC than we do with two games up,” Schroeder said. “It’s not the best use of an NFL game.” So, instead of moving all seven games to ESPN, the league is going to move four of ESPN’s current Monday Night games to NFL Network. That will increase the amount of “clean windows” – i.e. windows of time when only one NFL game is being played – for ESPN’s inventory. The result should benefit both ESPN’s ratings and the league, which gets four additional games to monetize to the media partners of its choice. On the record With founder of the women’s track-and-field league Athlos, Alexis Ohanian … This week’s CNBC Sport videocast guest is a sports team owner, the co-founder of Reddit, the husband of retired tennis star Serena Williams , and the founder of the women’s track-and-field league Athlos, Alexis Ohanian . I sat down with Ohanian at The Armory’s indoor track near West 168th Street in New York City. A couple of years ago, Ohanian founded Athlos, a series of women’s track-and-field events showcasing some of America’s best athletes. The U.S. women tend to dominate Olympics track and field, drawing huge TV ratings and making viral social media moments. Ohanian said he figured there’s probably a way for these athletes to stay in the spotlight in the interim. He’s orchestrated a series of events, including a long jump competition in the heart of Times Square that will take place in October. Satisfied with the test-case events, Ohanian is broadening Athlos into a full-fledged league. Beginning next year, the Athlos League will be a team-based competition with an athlete-ownership model. Olympic gold medalists Sha’Carri Richardson , Gabby Thomas and Tara Davis-Woodhall will all participate as team advisor-owners. Ohanian’s plan is to eventually bring in outside ownership to teams, similar to how the simulated golf league TGL operates. Ohanian co-owns the Los Angeles TGL team with Serena and her sister, Venus Williams . “Imagine a few different locations, Friday nights, under the lights, and having this team-based model, so that your athletes are not just competing for themselves, they’re also competing for a big team prize at the end,” Ohanian told me. “You’ll be wearing a Sha’Carri Richardson jersey or shirt for the first time ever, because she’ll actually have a team and a number emblazoned on her back that you can rep as a fan. And you’ll be cheering for her individually, but also for her team and the points. So every runner, every jump, has something at stake.” I also spoke with Ohanian about his future sports team investment plans – which he said will not include pickleball, despite his wife’s tennis background. “I have yet to see a pickleball highlight go viral in my feed,” Ohanian said. “The free market of attention has not said this is a sport I need to tune into.” You can watch our entire conversation here . Or listen here and follow the CNBC Sport podcast if you prefer the audio version. This week’s podcast comes with a bonus intro with my colleague Lillian Rizzo on Disney’s big announcements. CNBC Sport highlight reel The best of CNBC Sport from the past week: Here are all the details on ESPN’s deal with the WWE for its premium live events. I spoke with ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro , TKO Chief Operating Officer and President Mark Shapiro and WWE President Nick Khan about the agreement. And here are all the major details on ESPN’s NFL deal. Disney isn’t the only company officially launching its new sports-centric streaming service this month. Fox One debuts Aug. 21 at $19.99 per month. Fox One will include all of Fox’s sports and news programming that appears on its broadcast and cable TV networks. Like ESPN, Fox wanted to ensure the streaming service debuted before the start of the NFL season. Fox has broadcast Sunday afternoon games since 1994. CNBC’s Rizzo has the full story. The big number: $4.3 billion That’s how much revenue ESPN generated in Disney’s fiscal third quarter – up 1% from a year ago. Operating income fell 7% to $1 billion. The company attributed the decline to an increase in programming and production costs primarily due to “higher NBA and college sports rights costs reflecting contractual rate increases” and “the absence of NHL Stanley Cup Finals rights costs in the current quarter.” Disney has the rights to air the Stanley Cup Finals every other year. Quote of the week “They’re going to be independent and have the journalistic integrity to cover the league however they see fit, full stop. As partners, we may call them from time to time if there’s something that comes up, but that’s their call.” — NFL Executive Vice President of Media Distribution Hans Schroeder on if the NFL will have any say over ESPN’s coverage now that the league has agreed to take a 10% stake in the media company. (I spoke with Hans twice – once on the phone, when he told me this, and once as a recorded video interview. That can be seen here ). Around the league The Wall Street Journal has a good story this week on individuals who invested real money in Cleveland Guardians’ Emmanuel Clase ‘s future earnings – and who aren’t particularly pleased with the gambling investigation that’s put Clase on indefinite leave. Amazon Prime Video has a three-part series hitting the streaming service on Friday about former WNBA superstar Diana Taurasi. Detailing her childhood and her time in Russia, where she made far more money than she did in the U.S., “Taurasi” was co-produced by Skydance Sports and Meadowlark Media. The Wall Street Journal’s Jason Gay has a fun profile story on everyone’s favorite Savannah Bananas this week, featuring this quote from the league’s owner Jesse Cole that I almost made the Quote of the Week: “I haven’t learned from the baseball industry,” Cole said. “I learned from ‘Saturday Night Live.’ I learned from the Grateful Dead. I learned from Cirque de Soleil. I learned from WWE. I learned from Taylor Swift . I learned from Mr. Beast . I learned from Jeff Bezos and Amazon. I learned from Apple.”
