Fox One outpacing ESPN Unlimited subscriptions, per new data

Approximately three months after launch, both ESPN and Fox One seem to be meeting their modest subscriber goals.

Prior to each streaming service’s launch in late August, company executives at both ESPN and Fox urged patience when it came to the amount of subscribers that would be signing up for their respective platforms. Both, after all, were priced at a premium rate designed to capture those consumers that are not already in a pay TV bundle. ESPN Unlimited, at $30 per month, and Fox One, at $20 per month, weren’t streaming services going after market share. They were going after cord-cutters and cord-nevers.

So when data research firm Antenna posted its latest subscription estimates for ESPN and Fox One, it was no surprise that uptake of both platforms has been slow and steady. According to Antenna, ESPN has captured approximately 3 million subscribers for its new direct-to-consumer app between its August 21 launch and the end of October. 1.7 million of those subscribers have signed up for the ESPN Unlimited plan, while 1.3 million have purchased the ESPN Select plan (formerly ESPN+). It should be noted, these estimates do not include folks who were already subscribed to ESPN platforms via a Disney bundle or traditional pay TV service.

Fox One had an exceptional October, springing up to 2.3 million subscribers from an estimated 1.1 million at the end of September.

Per the Antenna estimates, Fox One is actually outpacing the subscriber figures for ESPN Unlimited, which is the tier that includes all of ESPN’s linear networks.

There could be a few reasons for this. For one, Fox One is $10 cheaper than ESPN Unlimited, making it a more affordable product. Second, Fox One is available through services like Amazon Prime Channels, which a prior Antenna report showed generated about 60% of the streamer’s signups. ESPN, on the other hand, is not available through such portals. Third, Fox One offers news and entertainment programming, while ESPN is a sports-only service. Fox, therefore, can draw upon a broader audience. And lastly, there are perhaps certain ESPN customers that are served adequately through the limited ESPN Select package, and don’t have a need for the linear channels offered in ESPN Unlimited. These customers would also be more likely to have already signed up for ESPN+ prior to the launch of ESPN’s new app, and therefore not be counted in the Antenna data.

So while it may seem strange that more people are opting to buy Fox One than ESPN Unlimited, it’s not as crazy as it seems. At the end of the day, both have successfully captured millions of consumers that presumably were not already in the pay TV bundle, since bundle subscribers can simply authenticate into these services without paying the additional subscription.

And for data that only represents the first 70 days of these products’ existences, that’s some solid incremental revenue for both ESPN and Fox.