Five months after its launch, subscription video on demand service ESPN+ has surpassed the one million subscriber mark, ESPN said Thursday.
The $4.99 per month service, which was launched in April 2018 by ESPN and The Walt Disney Company’s Direct-To-Consumer and International segment, will offer more than 10,000 live sports events, including Major League Baseball and NHL games, global soccer games, college football and basketball contests and boxing and mixed martial arts fights.
Since its launch, ESPN has reached several content deals to boost ESPN+'s programming lineup, including several college conference rights extensions, a multi-year agreement with boxing promotion company Top Rank, and an exclusive multi-year deal with MMA outfit UFC.
“Combining sports, technology and the ESPN brand is a very powerful combination, and we are just getting started. Very quickly, a wide range of sports fans have seen the value of ESPN+. With high quality programming and an outstanding user experience, ESPN and DTCI are expanding the ways Disney is serving sports fans,” said Jimmy Pitaro, president of ESPN and co-chair, Disney Media Networks in a statement.
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Added Disney’s chairman of Direct-to-Consumer and International Kevin Mayer: “Reaching one million paid subscribers is an important milestone for any video subscription service, but reaching this benchmark in such a short amount of time is an incredible testament to the teams from DTCI and ESPN who have worked tirelessly to bring this product to market and continually improve it since our April launch."
