Three entertainment conglomerates announced Tuesday they will be banding together to create a joint-venture streaming sports service in the U.S., expected to launch in the fall.

What You Need To Know

  • Disney's ESPN, the Fox Corporation and Warner Bros. Discovery have announced a joint pay streaming sports venture, expected to launch fall 2024

  • The new as-yet-unnamed service would place major sporting events from nearly all of the top sports leagues in North America and beyond under one umbrella, including the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL and the FIFA World Cup

  • This consolodation is a departure from the increasingly fragmented sports streaming market, in which fans of a sport would have to subscribe to any number of a growing list of services to get their fix

  • Neither a name nor a cost has been detailed for the service, though it was announced that consumers might be able to bundle it in a package with existing services from the three parent companies

The Walt Disney Company's ESPN, the Fox Corporation and Warner Bros. Discovery announced Tuesday that the three companies have reached an agreement on principal terms to create an "innovative new platform to house a compelling streaming sports service."

Though the announcement includes few major details — no word, for instance, about pricing for the service, much nor a name for the new brand — it grants a peek at the broad scope of sports leagues and federations the three have broadcasting rights to, including the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, the FIFA World Cup, thousands of televised college sporting events, MLS, NWSL, U.S. Soccer, PGA Tour, three of the four major tennis championship tournaments, UFC and NASCAR.

This agreement brings together all of those leagues from their current broadcasting and streaming homes, including ESPN, Fox, Max, TNT, TBS, Paramount+, Hulu and others, and pours them into what could be described as an alphabet soup of a streaming service. 

Disney CEO Bob Iger called the new service a "major win for sports fans." Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav said the service exemplifies our ability as an industry to drive innovation and provide consumers with more choice, enjoyment and value and we’re thrilled to deliver it to sports fans." Fox CEO and Executive Chair Lachlan Murdoch said that he believes the joint service "will provide passionate fans outside of the traditional bundle an array of amazing sports content all in one place."

While these three networks consolidate sports streaming under one streaming umbrella, NBC — with broadcast rights for the Olympics, certain MLB and NFL games, the French Open and the English Premier League — is something of a holdout.

NBC, through its Peacock premium streaming service, recently found success in broadcasting a selection of NFL playoff games, the first in the league’s history. According to Nielsen data reported by the Athletic, the national Peacock broadcast of the Kansas City Chiefs playoff win over the Miami Dolphins — combined with broadcasts in local markets and NFL mobile streaming — brought in 23 million viewers.

Until recently, major North American sports leagues had relatively simple ways for fans to catch as many games as possible, with a few catches. Outside of the local regional broadcasting model, in which individual teams sold broadcast rights to local TV stations or cable channels, each of the NBA, NFL and MLB have provided their own streaming services offering access to nearly all games. Others have deals with larger companies to stream all of their games, like the NHL (ESPN) and MLS (Apple TV+).

But the explosion of single-ownership streaming networks has forced a sea change in how sports fans pursue their preferred pastimes. For instance, American soccer fans seeking to consume all the top-flight footy they can handle would need subscriptions for ESPN (England’s FA Cup, Germany’s Bundesliga and Spain’s La Liga), NBC/Peacock (the English Premier League), Paramount+ (UEFA’s Champions League and the NWSL), Apple TV+ (MLS and the North American Leagues Cup), Amazon Prime (NWSL) and Fox Sports (the FIFA World Cup tournaments and some MLS playoff games).

Even Netflix is getting in on event streaming; after the live-streaming success of Chris Rock’s latest comedy special, the streaming giant inked a deal with WWE to become the home of the pro wrestling company’s flagship program, WWE RAW, starting in 2025.

It’s yet unclear how the deal might affect the individual league streaming platforms, though the announcement notes that the service would allow for bundling between existing services, like Hulu, Disney+ or Max.