It was also announced that Disney subsidiary ESPN was planning to develop an over-the-top service based on BAMTech technology as "an exploratory OTT project", drawing primarily from ESPN-owned rights for events not broadcast on television.

Disney CEO Bob Iger remarked that despite declines in the pay television industry due to cord-cutting, "live sports has really thrived, even in a world where there's so much more for people to do and to watch.

[16] Concurrent with the launch of Disney+ on November 12, 2019, the Disney Bundle was introduced, allowing users to subscribe to ESPN+, Disney+ and the ad-supported tier of Hulu for $12.99 per month.

Observers speculated that the increase was intended to promote uptake of the Disney Bundle, which continued at the then current $13.99 price point, while remaining competitive relative to other standalone sports streaming services.

[30] In October 2018, ESPN+ obtained the rights for the Swedish Allsvenskan and the Danish Superliga as well, declaring their intent to broadcast one match per week for each league.

[35][36] As of the 2021–22 season, ESPN+ carries out-of-market National Hockey League games under the NHL Power Play on ESPN+ banner (replacing the previous NHL.tv service).

[48][49] During the 2020 Major League Baseball season's Wild Card Series round, ESPN+ aired Squeeze Play—which featured live look-ins and analysis of the seven series ESPN held rights to (in a similar manner to the ESPN Bases Loaded service it offered during the NCAA baseball tournament), as well as Statcast broadcasts of selected games.

[52][53] In September 2021, Disney began to wind down the U.S. version of Hotstar, a streaming service targeting Indian Americans, and migrated its content exclusively to ESPN+ and Hulu.

This, in particular, includes its rights to home matches of the India national cricket team and Indian Premier League, which had been sub-licensed to ESPN+ via its sister network Star Sports.

[55] In May 2022, ESPN announced its acquisition of the third-tier media rights to Oklahoma Sooners athletics; the events will be carried on ESPN+ under the "SoonerVision on ESPN+" branding, and will include one exclusive football game per-season (which had previously been distributed by Bally/Fox Sports pay-per-view).

The deal will be in effect through the 2024–25 athletics season, after which the Sooners will exit the Big 12 and move to the Southeastern Conference (SEC)—whose media rights are fully-owned by ESPN.

[58][59] In May 2018, the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) announced new five-year digital and linear television rights deals with ESPN, effective January 2019.

[64] Spain England Germany Netherlands Sweden Belgium ESPN+ also carries ESPN original programming and documentaries, such as the 30 for 30 franchise (with some premiering on ESPN+ prior to their premiere on ESPN), and exclusive original series and studio programs:[3][4] In January 2021, Joe Hand Promotions began offering a commercial subscription of ESPN+ for Business, a version of ESPN+ that offers limited live sports content via DirecTV to commercial establishments.