As the viewing landscape continues to get more complex in the streaming era, ESPN is aiming to streamline things for sports fans by integrating video feeds from regional sports networks into its main app and website.
Starting this week, subscribers to NESN, which carries Boston sports teams including the Red Sox, Bruins and Celtics, will be able to tune into games via ESPN’s app or on ESPN.com. In May, timed to the start of the WNBA season, Washington, D.C.’s Monumental Sports Network will also be integrated. SportsNet Pittsburgh, which is operated by NESN, is also part of the ESPN agreement, though its coverage will be added down the line.
The offering will be geotargeted so that only those located in specific areas of the U.S. will see the option to watch their local games. Viewers also will still need to pay for access to the RSNs, which have begun to offer their services as stand-alone streaming apps over the past few years as cord-cutting keeps eroding their traditional subscriber bases.
“This is about improving discoverability of people’s favorite teams and who’s carrying their games,” Tim Bayus, VP, ESPN Strategy, told Deadline in an interview. Easing “fragmentation and consumer confusion” is a central objective, he added. Internal research indicated that avid sports viewers are “confused about where to find games, they’re frustrated. … What we’re trying to do is solve those consumer pain points. This is a first step in trying to figure that out. We know it’s a meaty one to tackle.”
Ahmed Darwish, CMO of NESN, said the network is “always looking for better ways to engage fans and give them access to their teams.”
RSNs, Darwish acknowledged, face an increasingly delicate balancing act between their traditional pay-TV subscribers and those paying to stream without a bundle. The ESPN initiative is not intended to signal any change of strategic direction. “Fans who have NESN in their pay-TV bundle are just as valuable to us, if not more valuable,” he said. “Something like this is targeted to them as well. … We’re just reducing friction to get to what they want, as opposed to replacing anything.”
The companies declined to offer financial details about the agreement, which is essentially a joint marketing effort as opposed to a channel-store-style subscription acquisition driver. Even if it doesn’t involve a substantial financial exchange, though, the setup illustrates how significantly the sports media world is evolving. In the opening weeks of 2024, ESPN itself has announced it is part of a new streaming bundle with Fox and Warner Bros Discovery and also set a date (fall 2025) for its long-anticipated launch of a flagship ESPN streaming service. Long rooted in the pay-TV ecosystem, the sports media sector has had to rearrange itself as the number of pay-TV households has fallen from a peak of 100 million to 65 million over the past decade.
The move also reflects the high visibility of ESPN’s main app across mobile and other platforms. ESPN Digital set a record in 2023 by drawing 111.4 million average monthly unique visitors, or nearly half of all users in the U.S. sports category. January stats from ComScore showed the momentum continuing, with 121.7 million uniques, or about 52% of the sports category.
Zach Leonsis, President of Media & New Enterprises for Monumental Sports & Entertainment, said the ESPN teaming is part of a commitment the company made when it acquired NBC Sports Washington and rebranded it Monumental in 2022. “We pledged to make our games more easily accessible for fans, and this partnership is a big step in that direction,” the exec said in a statement provided to Deadline.
