ESPN hopes to reach more casual sports fans with Disney+ integration

ESPN is coming to Disney+. Now, the sports network wants to make sure Disney+ users come to ESPN.

Walt Disney debuted a dedicated ESPN tile Wednesday on Disney+ for people who subscribe to ESPN+, its sports streaming platform, to watch programming without leaving the Disney+ application. Next fall, when ESPN launches its yet-to-be-named “flagship” service, those subscribers will get full access to all ESPN content through the ESPN tile on Disney+.

Disney is making about 100 live games available to Disney+ members without a corresponding ESPN subscription. Those events will span college football and basketball, the National Basketball Association and WNBA, the National Hockey League, Major League Baseball, tennis, golf, the Little League World Series and UFC, ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro said in an interview.

Next week’s alternate “Simpsons” telecast of the NFL’s “Monday Night Football” game between the Cincinnati Bengals and Dallas Cowboys will also be available to Disney+ subscribers, as well as five NBA Christmas games.

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