SC+ on Disney+ Not ESPN+
Alex Weprin
Just when it seemed like Amazon was making a move to take over the '+' branding, Disney swoops in to say "Hey, we see your 'Alexa+' – that's cute – but we raise you an 'SC+' inside of 'Disney+'":
Forty five years after its creation, ESPN is expanding the SportsCenter franchise, bringing the sports news show to an entirely new platform: Disney+.
ESPN says that it will launch a new Disney+ exclusive version of the franchise called SC+beginning March 3. Weekday episodes will be hosted by Gary Striewski and Randy Scott and go live at 9 a.m. and be available for 24 hours, with weekend editions hosted by Hannah Storm and Jay Harris, who will host SC+ following their SportsCenter:AM program on ESPN.
The format will be inspired by SportsCenter’s “SC Top 10” countdown segment, with the 10 most important sports news tories of the day, paired with insight from ESPN reporters and insiders. The format is meant to be geared to a more casual, entertainment-focused audience on Disney+.
The fact that ESPN was creating a new SportsCenter for more casual viewers was reported on back in December when Disney added an 'ESPN' tab to Disney+. As I wrote at the time:
They're also creating a new version of SportsCenter just for this more casual viewer, as well as a new studio show focused on women's sports – again, seems smart given the demographics of Disney+ subscribers versus typical ESPN viewers.
But this also runs the risk of being pretty muddled, pretty quickly:
I'm still fairly worried that Disney/ESPN are doing too much here. Again, I like the idea of an ESPN tab inside of Disney+ (which they also recently did for Hulu) and I think it makes sense to have a separate ESPN app for the more die-hard sports content seekers. But once you start to have both ESPN+ and next year's ESPN stand-alone app, things start to get fairly confusing, fast.
For those keeping score at home, Disney started by putting ESPN content inside of Disney+ in December. That included some ESPN content and some ESPN+ content, but notably not SportsCenter. Now they're adding a SportsCenter, but not the SportsCenter, in the form of this new SC+ show. This will exclusively live in the 'ESPN' tab on Disney+ and not within the ESPN+ app.
To repeat: SC+ is a part of Disney+. SC+ is not a part of ESPN+.
In a few months, Disney will launch a new ESPN streaming service which will be separate from Disney+ and ESPN+. It seems like ESPN+ content will move into this new service, but it's not clear if it will require a paid tier on top of whatever the ESPN service costs (if not, what's '+' about it?). But this SC+ show will continue to reside inside of Disney+ and not the new ESPN service – even though that ESPN service will also presumably be a part of Disney+ at some point.
I believe ESPN and thus, SportsCenter, will continue to be a part of Hulu. But not the main Hulu service, only 'Hulu + LiveTV' – there's that pesky '+' again! Only this time, it's an actual addition signifier! – which should soon be paired with Fubo, per the agreement to end Venu.1
Inside of Fubo you should also be able to access SportsCenter and ESPN. But presumably not ESPN+ since that will be a part of ESPN, the streaming service. And presumably not SC+, since that will be a part of Disney+. Though I'm guessing you'll be able to bundle all of these services together.
Oh yes, and there's still cable! For now at least! And the signing in to these various services via your cable provider.
I really just wanted to type that out to make sure I understand what they're doing here. I mean, at a high level I get what they're trying to do. But it's all sort of a branding clusterfuck at best, and confusing to consumers at worst.
Disney clearly likes the yes-to-every-option strategy, but it's also the opposite of what has worked for Netflix. Netflix is doing about a million different things these days – including live sports – but it's all just under Netflix. There's no 'Netflix+' or 'Netflix+ Sports' or 'Netflix+ Sports+'. Maybe that becomes untenable at some point, but for years now, their algorithm has been the secret sauce serving up what you want, when you want it. Amazon Prime Video is less streamlined, but still just one app/service for all of their content, including sports. Again, maybe that has to change at some point, but for now, it's clear what you're signing up for and what you're getting with that. With Disney, it's bundles all the way down...
Granted, Netflix and Amazon don't have legacy sub-brands to deal with as Disney does with ESPN and SportsCenter. I'm just hoping Disney doesn't do to the ESPN brand what Warner Bros Discovery (but really, it was AT&T before them) has done to HBO. There, the content remains good but the brand is sort of lost. In fact, it feels like they're about one step away from rebranding 'Max' as 'HBO' again.2
M.G. Siegler
M.G. Siegler
M.G. Siegler
1 OMG, could you imagine if Venu was still a part of the mix here?!
2 Unless they sell it, that is!