As premium subscription services including Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, Peacock, Paramount+ and even Netflix made major investments in live sports content over the past several years, the significant amount of live sports on Fox and Disney’s ESPN remained confined to the pay TV ecosystem.
That changed in August with the launches of Fox One and ESPN Unlimited. Through strategic bundling, both direct-to-consumer services have grown quickly. There was speculation virtual MVPDs would be negatively impacted by the growth and sports-focused bundling of these two new entries, but so far early on, virtual pay TV signups have remained mostly stable.
This is a finding of research company Antenna’s “State of Subscriptions: Sports and Streaming” report, which takes the temperature of the U.S. subscription streaming business, post the launch of two major DTC streamers.
Culling information from banking data and other consumer-effacing sources, the research company estimates that Disney’s ESPN-branded direct-to-consumer apps generated around 3 million signups from their August 21 launch through October 31. Antenna also estimates that Fox One garnered around 1.7 million signups over the same period.
Starting August 21, the full complement of ESPN content in app form (branded “Unlimited”) was bundled along with the ad-supported versions of Disney+ and Hulu for $35.99 a month. The pre-existing and decidedly limited ESPN+ was rebranded as “ESPN Select,” and also bundled with ad-supported Disney+ and Hulu for $19.99 a month. And starting on Oct. 2, Disney and Fox combined ESPN Unlimited and Fox One in a $39.99-a-month bundle, representing a $10 monthly discount on the standalone price.
These bundles have proven effective for Disney’s preeminent live sports brand, with Disney-bundled ESPN Unlimited signups accounting for 43% of all ESPN DTC enlistments from August-October, and similarly Disney-bundled ESPN Select signups making up 22%.
Only 12% of ESPN DTC signups came in the form of $29.99-a-month ($299-a-year) standalone ESPN Unlimited packaging.
Again, ESPN Unlimited and Fox One bundle debuted Oct. 2, late in Antenna’s accounting period, so not many signups through that mechanism were tallied.
Meanwhile, as most ESPN app purchasers enlisted mainly through approaching Disney directly for bundled offerings, 57% of Fox One signups recorded by Antenna came from the Amazon Prime Video Channels marketplace.
Prior to the launch of the two new streaming services, there a was question whether sports-focused vMVPDs would be impacted The ESPN Unlimited/Fox One bundle, for $39.99 offers ESPN live sports, the ABC Television Network, Fox Sports 1 and 2, and the FOX Broadcast Network, covering NFL, college football, NBA and Major League Baseball TV rights. Compare that to the price of a virtual MVPD like YouTube TV, which runs $82.99 a month.
Per the research company, however, vMVPDs — while broadly down as a sector for all of 2025 — held up OK during the initial ESPN/Fox One signup period, down only around 12% YoY in aggregate for the third quarter.
Churn rates for vMVPDs, which according to Antenna typically peak at the beginning (September) and end (February) of the NFL season, was down 0.4 points in September 2025 YoY.
“While the impact on pay TV is still to be determined, Antenna observes that vMVPDs did not have an unusual decline in September,” wrote the study authors. Noting the Q3 12% yoy sign-up decline the report also stated “this decline rate was roughly consistent with acquisition trends from the rest of 2025, and the category did still see the September bump which usually comes from the start of football season. Further, churn rates were down slightly year-over-year.”