SumItUp wrote:ESPN3 was never free. It was an additional offering ONLY for ESPN subscribers of a paid television/satellite/other service.
You are wrong on this point. ESPN3 (and its predecessor ESPN360) was completely free at one point... At least to those with either a .edu or .mil email address. Our first foray into "cord cutting" was the completely free Hulu and ESPN3. We watched on our laptops.
I don't see ESPN+ as being a huge disadvantage to us, but OF COURSE the market is MUCH smaller. ESPN subscriptions > ESPN+ subscriptions, and it isn't even close.
However: Disney has several things here at play in the near future which might even things up a bit:
1. They just acquired near full control of HULU
2. They have already launched ESPN+
3. They are soon to launch DISNEY+
It has already been said by disney execs that they plan to bundle these by the fall.