ESPN3 is officially no more

Once considered ESPN’s primary digital offering, ESPN3 is no more.

As first reported by Luke Bouma of Cord Cutters News, Disney recently discontinued the channel, which primarily featured exclusive college sporting events, niche competitions, and replays. As a result, ESPN3 is no longer available on any streaming or linear pay-TV package, with its content having been dispersed across Disney’s other platforms, including ESPN, ESPN and the ESPN app as of Dec. 2.

Sling TV is perhaps the primary provider affected here, as its customers had maintained the ability to subscribe to the ESPN3 channel as part of their package. According to Cord Cutter News, some Sling Orange subscribers have reported being able to log into the ESPN app to watch games that are airing on ABC, despite the channel not being included in the package.

While ESPN3 had previously been the network’s primary digital package — many college sporting events that weren’t available on its linear channels could be seen on the ESPN3 website or by providers that offered it as a channel — the channel had become increasingly deemphasized in recent years. Following the launch of ESPN+ in 2018, many of the sporting events previously offered on ESPN3 moved to the streaming service, with the bulk of the remaining content moving to ESPN’s direct-to-consumer app when it launched this past August.

As such, the demise of ESPN3 was effectively academic and it’s worth emphasizing that the niche content that it offered isn’t going away; it’s just moving to the platforms that Disney is now prioritizing. Still, the official end of ESPN3 marks the end of an era for the Worldwide Leader in Sports, as ESPN3 in its most recent iteration had been a part of ESPN’s portfolio since ESPN360 first rebranded in 2011.