According to a report from CNBC, the newly announced sports streaming joint venture from Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), Fox (FOX, FOXA), and Disney's ESPN (DIS) will cost $40 per month. The streaming service is expected to launch in the fall of 2024, as Disney preps ESPN to launch its own direct-to-consumer app by fall 2025.
Yahoo Finance's Josh Schafer, Dan Howley, and Pras Subramanian discuss the new joint venture, what it means in terms of streaming competition, and who this venture is aimed at.
For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live.
Editor's note: This article was written by Nicholas Jacobino
Video Transcript
JOSH SCHAFER: Welcome to Yahoo Finance's group chat. I'm Josh Schafer alongside Pras Subramanian and Dan Howley. And today, we are starting with a major play in the sports streaming space. ESPN, Fox, and Warner Brothers Discovery are bringing together a slew of sports networks under one app. The official subscription costs for this new app, which hasn't been named, has not been listed. But CNBC out reporting today that it will have a price tag starting at, or potentially more, than $40 per month.
Should also note, guys, some other news out of Disney, as they're reporting earnings just now in the last hour. The ESPN standalone streaming service that we've been waiting for is slated to launch in the fall of 2025. So that could, in some ways, be a different option here if you just wanted sports that are on ESPN. You wouldn't have to go for this full bundle. But the bundle, and the reported $40, is sort of what I want to bring to the table here and debate.
$40 to get a slew of sports leagues. Right? We're talking exposure to NBA, exposure to MLB, a decent amount of NFL games, pretty much all of the NHL games. So you're going to get a lot of sports. But $40 a month is a pretty big price tag.
DAN HOWLEY: Do you want to rant? Or do you want me to rant?
PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: I'll do my quick rant real quick.
DAN HOWLEY: OK, go for it.
PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: So seems like a helpful service. But I have cable. I don't understand why we've disintermediated all this into like multiple streaming services, then they all kind of come back together Frankenstein like, and then I got to pay money for this. But then, oh, I don't get Comcast, I don't get whatever else, one of the big major ones. CBS, right?
JOSH SCHAFER: Yeah.
PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: So--
JOSH SCHAFER: You're missing the NBC and CBS football games. As a sports fan, that's the biggest thing I take away from this. So it's Sunday Night Football, and then the CBS games on Sunday.
PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: It's not perfect. And then for 40 bucks, how much would it have cost for ESPN, all the Warner Brothers content, and then the other one, which is whatever, I can't remember now?
JOSH SCHAFER: Fox.
PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: Fox.
JOSH SCHAFER: Yeah.
PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: Would that have been 40 bucks for the entire month? I-- probably. I don't know. But it seems like, what's going on here?
DAN HOWLEY: It's-- to me, it's the dumbest thing on Earth. I think that all these companies are just consumer hostile. I think that-- look. I pay, I think it's $80 a month now for YouTube TV. Right? I've got to get my "Naked and Afraid". I got to get my "Bar Rescue". And I got it specifically so I could watch the Mets originally. Because I didn't want to pay for cable. It was too expensive. And so I was like, OK, I can watch the Mets lose with YouTube TV.
JOSH SCHAFER: Sure.
DAN HOWLEY: Great. Now, it doesn't have the Mets because--
PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: It's local, right?
DAN HOWLEY: Yeah.
PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: MSG?
DAN HOWLEY: All these companies just hate consumers, I guess. But now, I would have to pay 40 bucks-- if I pay 40 bucks, do I get SNY? No.
PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: [INAUDIBLE]
JOSH SCHAFER: So my defense is, I'll Gen Z-ify this a little bit because well, it's targeted for my generation, I think, a younger generation that by the time I graduated--
DAN HOWLEY: How dare you?
JOSH SCHAFER: But by the time I graduated college, I never got a cable package. Right? And so Disney directly said that they're basically targeting me in this.
DAN HOWLEY: Yeah.
PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: Right.
JOSH SCHAFER: And I'm a buyer. i'm a buyer at 40 bucks because I don't have cable, this gets me most of it, tack on Paramount Plus for like six bucks or whatever it is, and Peacock. And I'm still below $55. And I get all the NFL games I want. And really, I only watch sports. And then I'd probably get Netflix with ads, and I'm under 80 bucks. And that's all the TV I need.
PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: So Lachlan Murdoch did say, Fox chairman or whatever, said that this is for the cord nevers. And that's not you--
JOSH SCHAFER: I'm a cord never.
PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: Yeah you're a cord never. I'm-- we're cord guys. Right? So--
DAN HOWLEY: I'm just going to end with this. When I had cable and I was getting the Mets, I would pay for cable, internet, and it was cheaper than all the stuff that I have now.
