Joe Kinsey
Videos by OutKick
ESPN will be moving select features and analysis behind the ESPN+ paywall, according to New York Post reporter Andrew Marchand. The move comes 10 days after Disney announced a company-wide content restructuring that will “accelerate the transition to a real direct-to-consumer priority company.” The company said it would be utilizing a “newly centralized global distribution team” that would be in charge of moving content through the proper company channels.
It appears that moving ESPN features and analysis behind the ESPN+ paywall is part of that change. The Post reports “breaking news and investigative pieces will remain outside the paywall.” The company is expected to announce the changes Thursday.
Part of the changes will include studio television programs The Dan Le Batard with Stugotz, Greeny, Chiney & Golic Jr. and The Max Kellerman Show moving to ESPN+ beginning Monday, November 9.
Analysis and feature writers Zach Lowe and Bill Barnwell will now be paywalled, as well as: Malika Andrews, Kevin Arnovitz, Stephania Bell, Matthew Berry, Michael Collins, Bill Connelly, Heather Dinich, Kirk Goldsberry, Alden Gonzalez, Dan Graziano, Baxter Holmes, Jackie MacMullan, Jeff Passan, Dave Schoenfield, Kevin Seifert, Ramona Shelburne, Andre Snellings, Wright Thompson, Seth Wickersham, Brian Windhorst, and Greg Wyshynski.
“These moves bring additional personality, insight and entertainment to ESPN+ every day, while cementing a daily studio lineup and building a deeper, broader collection of written work that makes fans smarter,” ESPN said in a press release. “The combination of talented, trusted ESPN voices and unmatched insider expertise, alongside the entire 30 for 30 library and groundbreaking originals that feature some of the biggest names in sports, means ESPN+ is offering subscribers a collection of premium video and written content they cannot find anywhere else.”
ESPN+ currently costs $5.99 per month or $49.99 with a yearly plan. ESPN+ can also be bundled with Disney+ and Hulu for $12.99. As of June, there were 8.5 million ESPN+ subscribers.
CNBC’s Jim Cramer said last week that he believes the Disney restructuring signals the company’s desire to get rid of ESPN. “There is a belief we’re saturated in sports,” Cramer said. “That ESPN is no longer integral.”
“ESPN used to be this unbelievable thing, and now it’s just a really expensive thing they are having trouble monetizing. ESPN is no longer the precious place that it once was.”
I wont pay a dime for ESPN+, the fake news leftist shitstorm CNN of sports. Unless live Maryland sports are on, I don’t watch any ESPN programming.
Haha the headline might as well read “ESPN moving select features where they will never ever be read.” Die faster, woke sports bullshit.
Exactly, I stopped visiting the ESPN website outside of Fantasy Football the MOMENT they introduced ESPN Insider & that was back in the early 2000’s
Bye. I’ll be fine with here. Bleacher Report should be called the LeBron Report.
Great. I’m sure all their SJW fans will want to subscribe!
You mean they have jobs and pay bills…..lol
I stopped visiting ESPN content a couple months ago at the “height of wokeness”. I haven’t missed anything worth knowing.
If you simply come here, mlb.com, ncaa.com, or nfl.com, you’re covered without all the blood pressure elevating propaganda nonsense. I recommend not wasting your money on ESPN when you don’t need them to get your sports news.
I paid $7.99 a year – still too much. Cancelled this September. Glad that Max Kellerman won’t get one penny of my money.
Hahahhahahhahahhaha… won’t watch this bastion of race baiters and militant homosexual activists… who would pay extra to watch additional vitriolic TDS?
This will be fun to watch. Until now, these chuckleheads blamed any number of reasons why their ratings were failing…..but never themselves.
Now they will be forced in to a reckoning as they go to a pay-to-watch model. Granted, Outkick is using that same model, and it very quickly crystalizes what people want. Outkick is delivering that…..ESPN is not.
No excuses now!
I don’t care what they do i don’t have it and don’t want it all their personalities are smug lefty types so let them support not me
The evolution of Disney’s version of marxist/socialism.
Any “talent” that had “ANY TALENT” has already flown the mothership coop.
The brain-thrust meets and agrees their remaining customers would enjoy paying for mediocre talents to write mediocre shit and yakk up mediocrities into peoples’ homes.
Truly…these media geniuses are in a bubble that shields them from common sense and creativity.
Oz The Great and Powerful speaks:
‘…company-wide content restructuring that will “accelerate the transition to a real direct-to-consumer priority company…utilizing a newly centralized global distribution team” that would be in charge of moving content through the proper company channels.’
Sounds like an intricate plumbing network to get the crap out the building.
A: ESPN+ paywall and alcohol free Guinness.
Q: What two new products were announced today that I won’t be spending a penny on?
Haha nice. Both are pointless and much better options exist elsewhere.
More trash I won’t pay for.
So ESPN’s answers for their ratings cratering is making people pay for content they don’t want to watch. Incredible business model
Which of these writers would I pay to read? Maybe Jackie Mac? Also, if these are their best writers, what is going to be left on the free site? An absolute wasteland. Outkick needs to get its scoreboard and other routine sports update functions up and running ASAP!
I canceled all msespn,,,, I wouldn’t watch it if they PAiD ME !