Will a New App "Save" ESPN?
The Hollywood Reporter provocatively remarked that ESPN “believes a new app will save the company.” What is ESPN changing with its new app? Does the company need to be saved? And will the app’s key features do the trick?
We can learn a lot about the future of media, especially streaming media, on the basis of these questions.
ESPN’s New Approach
ESPN faces the same dilemma as all streamers, especially streamers that need to monetize expensive sports rights: Cable is dying, so they need to make up the revenue through some combination of subscription and ad revenue via DTC products such as their own apps. Hence, ESPN is launching a new app that will aim to drive greater consumer attention and engagement.
Key features:
All Sports in One Place: Full access to ESPN’s live channels and content, consolidating games and coverage to reduce streaming fragmentation.
Personalized Experience: Customizable feeds to follow your teams, plus AI-driven, team-specific commentary and highlights.
Short-Form “Verts”: A TikTok/YouTube-style vertical video feed for quick highlights and recaps.
Interactive and Gamified: Integrated betting, fantasy sports, and e-commerce features for a more engaging experience.
ESPN appears to be responding to three trends: younger consumers’ penchant for short-form video; AI’s ongoing popularization of highly customized, interactive content as well as consumers’ preference for gamification; and fragmentation (it takes a handful of streaming apps to watch a single sport). How big a challenge do these trends represent for a legacy media company such as ESPN/Disney?
Short-Form Video Is Eating ESPN’s Attention Share
YouTube and TikTok dominate younger audiences’ viewing habits. For ESPN, this is a fight for attention: TikTok-style feeds refresh endlessly, while traditional broadcasts feel static. Without short-form features like “Verts,” ESPN risks ceding younger viewers — as well as corresponding ad and subscription dollars — to platforms built for bite-sized, algorithmic consumption.
AI and Interactivity Have Become Table Stakes
The explosion of AI tools like ChatGPT has set a new bar for content: responsive, personalized, and interactive. 70% of Americans use a second screen while consuming other media—80% of Millennials—and many purchase directly from ads they see. This multitasking audience expects live stats, fantasy updates, and betting options integrated in-stream, not as separate experiences. Legacy sports coverage feels passive by comparison.
ESPN’s new app promises AI-driven commentary, personalized recaps, and in-app commerce, but the challenge is execution and habituation. Younger audiences now expect real-time engagement as the baseline, and they don’t expect to get it from ESPN. Can the old dog show Gen Z that it’s learned new tricks? And can ESPN really deliver on these lofty promises?
Streaming Fragmentation Erodes Reach and Revenue
ESPN cable households have fallen from 100+ million in 2010 to under 60 million today, on track to dip below 50 million soon. At the same time, fans must juggle multiple apps—ESPN, Fox One, Amazon, Apple, NFL+—to follow a single sport.
This splintering dilutes scale for advertisers and makes retention harder for platforms like ESPN.
3 Ideas for ESPN to Evolve, not Reinvent Itself
ESPN remains a major revenue driver for Disney, but margins are tightening. Figures show revenue around $4.3B last quarter (up only 1% YOY) with operating profit down 7%, pressured by soaring rights costs for NFL and WWE deals. Every subscription and ad impression now matters, so the new app’s push toward interactivity and personalization is a financial necessity.
Embracing short-form content, interactivity and customization, and consolidated access shows ESPN is thinking intelligently about the current media moment. But they don’t need to desert the DNA that made them the leader in sports media. On the contrary, I’d suggest ESPN think about how to evolve its historical strengths into this next era of media instead of turning its back on them.
Here are three rules for ESPN to do just that.
Rule #1: Charismatic personalities are still the cornerstone of a sports media brand. I go to The Ringer for Bill Simmons and his coterie of humorous commentators. I go to ESPN for Mina Kimes and Ben Solak. Some argue ESPN’s talking heads are no longer relevant. I don’t think so. Stephen A. Smith and Mike Greenberg still matter. The question is how to make those personalities the cornerstone of ESPN’s brand and relationship with consumers at a time when they need to be delivered differently.
Rule #2: Make those personalities easy to find. The Ringer works because I know exactly where to find the voices I trust: on demand on Spotify. ESPN personalities are harder to track down. You don’t have to abandon the 30- or 60-minute format. Just make the content discoverable when and where audiences want it.
Rule #3: Create a clear through-line between personalities and the brand. ESPN used to center on loud, argumentative debates. Mina Kimes and Ben Solak aren’t that, and that’s fine. Contrast can work. But right now, ESPN’s brand feels disjointed. The Ringer has a defined mix of humor, pop culture, and analysis; The Athletic is serious, NYT-style sports reporting. What’s ESPN’s unifying identity? Who exactly is it for? How do the personalities ladder up to a cohesive brand of content that audiences can’t get anywhere else?
In short, ESPN is heading in the right direction with its new app. But this is an evolution, not a reinvention. Even as the company adds live sports, short-form video, and interactivity, talking heads will remain critical. The opportunity is making them easier to discover — and ensuring they collectively tell the story of the ESPN brand.
