Disney has quietly shut down ESPN3 as 2025 comes to a close.
The digital network that acted as an extension of ESPN has been officially discontinued on live TV streaming services and linear pay-TV packages as of Dec. 2, reports Cord Cutters News, with its content being dispersed onto other ESPN platforms, including ESPN Unlimited, ESPN Select, ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC.
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Disney first announced to distributors in November that ESPN3 would be shutting down, as the launch of the ESPN app in August made the channel redundant. The ESPN app, which includes the ESPN Unlimited and ESPN Select plans, was designed to expand access for existing cable subscribers and give subscribers outside of the traditional TV bundle access to ESPN content.
It also marked the first time the company offered all of its linear TV content to customers via streaming.
“We’re approaching our 46th year here, and I would say that this is one of the biggest days at ESPN, if not the biggest,” ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro told CNBC’s David Faber at the time of the launch. “This is something that fans have been wanting, they’ve been asking for for many years. And our mission is to serve the sports fan — anytime, anywhere — and we’re going to deliver.”
Pitaro and Disney CEO Bob Iger both emphasized that the company wanted to look at ESPN’s offerings as a whole as opposed to specifically focusing on subscribers to the new streaming service.
“As a company, we’re now agnostic when it comes to linear television and digital television, digital content, we manage them together and holistically,” Iger said at the time. “We look at the whole, and that’s what we’ll do here.”