ESPN To Launch On Disney+ In Australia & New Zealand Later This Year

February 10, 2025 Roger Palmer

Disney has officially announced that the ESPN hub will soon be coming to Disney+ in Australia and New Zealand in the coming months.

The ESPN hub on Disney+ will bring more than 10,000 hours of ESPN’s live sports action to the platform via live ESPN and ESPN2 channels, with fan-favourite studio shows including SportsCenter, The Pat McAfee Show, NBA Today, and First Take, along with live events and on-demand replays, and iconic original programming including ESPN’s award-winning library of 30 for 30 films.

ESPN content will be available to all Disney+ subscribers in ANZ (Standard and Premium) except profiles in Junior Mode. The full ESPN on Disney+ content offering will be available to profiles with 18+ Content Maturity settings.

Disney has been spending billions of dollars on multi-year global sporting rights deals and knows that sports are one of the key types of content to drive engagement on Disney+. Later this year, ESPN will also launch an exclusive version of SportsCenter called “SC+” on Disney+ for casual sports fans.

Australia and New Zealand will be the first English-speaking markets outside of North America to launch ESPN on Disney+, following the US debut in December 2024, following the ESPN hub has already been added to Disney+ in Latin America in June 2024.

The Walt Disney Company Australia and New Zealand Senior Vice President and Managing Director, and Head of ESPN Asia-Pacific, Kylie Watson-Wheeler, said in a statement:

“We’re excited to bring ESPN to Disney+ for sports fans across our sports-loving nations. Sport on Disney+ is an innovative game-changer. It further enriches our already strong and unique content offering, boosts value for subscribers, and serves sports fans anytime, anywhere.

Disney+ will provide access to the biggest ESPN offering ever delivered in our market, including live games and on-demand replays. ESPN’s unrivalled coverage of massive global sporting events and dedicated local programming adds to the wide array of entertainment already available on Disney+ for audiences of all ages.”

The new ESPN hub on Disney+ will bring more than 10,000 hours of ESPN’s live sports action to the platform via the ESPN and ESPN2 channels, additional on-demand live events, on-demand replays and iconic original programming.

ESPN has extensive rights to major sporting events. Upcoming highlights include the NBA All-Star Weekend, NBL Championship Series, MLB Opening Day, the NBA Finals and the NHL Stanley Cup Final.

ESPN will be the “Home for Hoops” with basketball action across the NBA and WNBA, which is celebrating 30 years in Australia in 2025 with its locally operated business spanning TV, digital and editorial platforms serving sports fans anytime, anywhere.

In addition to the ESPN offering on Disney+, ESPN is available via Foxtel, Kayo Sport, Fetch TV, and Sky NZ. Later this year, Disney’s ESPN deal with Foxtel is expected to expire this summer.

Roger’s Take: With ESPN becoming a major aspect of Disney+ in the US and Latin America, it’s only fitting that the sports brand starts to branch out to become a global brand via the expansion of Disney+. I fully expect ESPN to start launching in other regions around the world throughout the year as the addition of sports will give the streaming service something different and unique compared to some of the other global platforms like Netflix and Amazon.