On Thursday, Aug. 21, ESPN will launch its new Direct-to-Consumer streaming service, bringing the full suite of 12 ESPN networks and services directly to fans through an enhanced ESPN App. Timed with the start of college football, the NFL season, and more, ESPN DTC offers two plans — including an unlimited option for $29.99/month that covers thousands of live events annually, plus bundling opportunities with Disney+ and Hulu for the first 12 months.
This month, ESPN also announced expanded NFL draft rights, a new deal with WWE, and the acquisition of NFL Network and RedZone (pending approvals) — all part of a broader strategy to deliver more content, more access, and more value to fans.
With DTC, ESPN’s storytelling enters a new era — and the journey continues.
How It All Started
In the summer of 1978, founder Bill Rasmussen and his son Scott dreamed up ESPN while stuck in traffic on I-84 in Waterbury, Connecticut.
About a year later, on Sept. 7, 1979, ESPN debuted.
“We didn’t know if anybody would be watching,” Bill Rasmussen recalled. “We had no idea whether the satellite would work.”
But it did, and SportsCenter anchor Lee Leonard welcomed fans with the words: “If you’re a fan, what you’ll see in the next minutes, hours and days to follow may convince you you’ve gone to sports heaven.”
As SportsCenter anchor George Grande once said of ESPN’s early days, “We had a hope that ESPN would succeed . . . but we had no idea whether we’d last four weeks or 40 years.”
Watch the video above as Leonard and Grande welcome viewers to ESPN.
Watch the video below to learn more about how ESPN is heralding its next chapter, DTC. And visit Front Row throughout this week for more reflections on major milestones and learn more about the DTC launch and the enhanced ESPN App.
