ESPN, Fox One to bundle streaming services shortly after launch

The great re-bundling is beginning to take shape.

According to a report by Dade Hayes in Deadline, ESPN and Fox will bundle their forthcoming direct-to-consumer streaming services, which are both set to launch August 21, beginning on October 2. The combined offering will be priced at $39.99 per month, $10 more than ESPN’s standalone streaming service. Fox One is priced at $19.99 per month on its own.

Both Fox and ESPN were would-be partners in the Venu Sports joint venture that never launched after an antitrust lawsuit from virtual MVPD company Fubo effectively killed the platform before its debut. It was widely understood that Fox One was a means with which Fox could bundle its linear content in direct-to-consumer offerings without facing the same regulatory scrutiny as the Venu Sports joint venture. Fox Corporation CEO Lachlan Murdoch highlighted these partnership opportunities when Fox One was announced earlier this year.

Per Deadline, the bundled product will utilize some of Venu’s infrastructure. In addition to Fox’s sports properties, the bundle will also include Fox News, Fox Business, and Fox Weather.

“Working with Fox One on this bundle offer allows us to bring ESPN’s world-class sports content to even more fans in a seamless and innovative way,” Sean Breen, EVP, Disney Platform Distribution, told Deadline in a statement. “This collaboration reflects our shared commitment to delivering premium experiences across platforms and meeting consumers where they are – anytime, anywhere.”

Last week, Disney CEO Bob Iger expressed his desire to make ESPN’s new streaming service a go-to destination for live sports regardless of what network a game is airing on. However, this bundle will still require users to launch the ESPN app to access ESPN content and the Fox One app to access Fox content.

Either way, expect this type of bundling to continue as every major sports rights holder will now have their own direct-to-consumer platforms to sell.

At $39.99 per month, both Disney and Fox hope that this bundled service will not accelerate cord-cutting. Both Murdoch and ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro have outlined intentions for these services to be complimentary to their linear businesses, rather than being designed to replace them.

“We are ultimately going to judge ourselves based on the totality of people subscribing to ESPN,” Pitaro said in May. “We are not going to look at one specific platform.”