ESPN+ To Be Included In DirecTV’s New MySports Package
Over the past year, ever since Disney announced it was teaming up with Warner Brothers Discovery and FOX to launch a new sports streaming service called “Venu Sports”, the entire traditional linear cable industry has been trying to stop the launch.
This resulted in Fubo successfully getting an injunction to stop the launch of Venu Sports. Many other companies, including Dish and DirecTV, also made their issues public about how the launch of a skinning sports bundle would be a problem for them.
Last week, the Fubo lawsuit was dropped following Disney’s announcement that it was going to merge its Hulu + Live TV business with Fubo TV and take a 70% ownership of Fubo. Just a few days later, Disney announced that the Venu Sports platform was being discontinued and wouldn’t launch as planned.
Today, DirecTV has announced a brand new streaming sports package for its customers called MySports. This is the first of its kind, a more tailored package of channels for fans looking for 24-7 sports.
At launch, MySports includes 40 sports and broadcast channels and will be initially be available in 24 metro areas, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco Bay Area, and others. The availability of MySports will expand into additional markets as DIRECTV adds more local stations to the package.
The streamlined MySports package includes national and local channels in select markets, as well as live news channels. National sports channels immediately available through MySports include ACC Network, Big Ten Network, DIRECTV 4K Live, DIRECTV 4K Live 2, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNews, ESPNU, Fox Sports 1, Fox Sports 2, Golf Channel, MLB Network, NBA TV, NFL Network, NHL Network, SEC Network, TBS, TNT, TruTV and USA Network. Local channels will initially include any stations owned and operated by ABC, FOX, and NBC, with additional stations coming online soon.
It was also announced that this new MySports bundle will also include access to Disney’s ESPN+ streaming service, which will be included in MySports at no extra cost in the near future. It’s not clear if this will be changed once the new ESPN Flagship service launches later this year.
In addition, as with all DIRECTV packages, MySports customers will also have access to the MyFree DIRECTV ad-supported sports channels, which includes ACC Digital Network, Big 12, Fight Network, Fuel TV, Origin Sports, Pickleball TV, Players TV, Sports Grid, Stadium Stream, Surfer TV, Swerve Combat, T2, The Jim Rome Show, TNA, Torque by History, Waypoint TV and Women’s Sports Network.
The new MySports package will be priced at $69.99 a month, though if you sign up before February 28th 2025, you can get $20 off a month for the first three months.
Bill Morrow, CEO of DIRECTV said in a statement regarding the new bundle:
“The introduction of MySports from DIRECTV delivers consumers greater choice, flexibility, and control to select the type of content they want to watch at the right value. This is the first of several genre-based options we plan to launch over the coming months on our path towards a brighter TV future for consumers.”
Roger’s Take: The launch of MySports feels very much like a slightly bigger version of Venu Sports. After all the fuss the launch of Venu Sports has caused, it looks like Disney is now effectively breaking apart its traditional bundle, no longer forcing customers to take on additional networks. The addition of ESPN+ to the bundle is also a good indication of how Disney is thinking of its streaming and linear sports offerings as connected rather than separate. No doubt the launch of Venu Sports didn’t go as planned for Disney, Warner Brothers or Discovery, but it looks like sports fans will be able to save some money by switching over to this new streaming bundle.
What do you think of this new bundle from DirecTV? Let me know on social media!