ESPN and Disney have already laid down the gauntlet on the sports media giant’s forthcoming direct-to-consumer streaming service, currently called Flagship, which has been branded as no less than “the best product the consumer has ever seen in sports.” Now, ESPN is beginning to make that case to the public.

The network has begun a marketing effort that encourages fans to “tap in” to its broad range of services, which ultimately will be blended into Flagship, the product’s internal working name.

“Tap into the thing that becomes your thing, that becomes everything,” reads ESPN’s Malika Andrews, best known for her work on NBA Countdown and NBA Today, in a voiceover for one of the campaign’s ads. “Tap into an entire world of sports.”

That campaign builds on Disney CEO Bob Iger’s heady comments last month to financial analysts that also included an assertion that the direct-to-consumer platform will be “the most compelling way ESPN has ever served the consumer.” Similarly, ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro said at an October conference at Columbia University that the service will be a distillation of all the company’s offerings and capabilities, including multiscreen viewing, full integration with ESPN Bet, ticketing, merchandising, and fantasy content. 

“The shoulder experience around the video will be much more interactive and it will be much more personalized,” Pitaro said. 

As a result, the marketing looks to reframe ESPN as much more than a linear network and instead a digital-first hub of an entire range of sports touchpoints.

Future Timetables

The new service has long been targeted to debut in time for the 2025 college and pro football seasons, and that remains the plan. Well before that, though, there will be plenty of discussion about Flagship. 

A multimedia ad campaign also will see the “tap in” message displayed in and around many major venues and events. That will include ESPN’s Christmas Day coverage of the NBA this week, and subsequent key events such as NFL and college basketball games. 

More details, including the final, public name of the service and its monthly costs, will be finalized and marketed at various points next spring and summer.  

Updates From the Boss

Pitaro, meanwhile, also issued on Monday ESPN’s “Year in Review for 2024,” detailing a lengthy list of accomplishments that includes the creation of an ESPN tile on sister streaming property Disney+, large-scale rights deals for the NBA and expanded College Football Playoff, and a separate pact to present the iconic Inside the NBA studio show, among many others—while also celebrating the network’s 45th anniversary.

“As I like to say, I like our hand,” Pitaro said. 

The expanded College Football Playoff isn’t the only thing that’s evolved in the sport’s shifting landscape.

Non-CFP bowl games, which are being played throughout the holiday season, continue to mark new territory by paying some participating players via NIL (name, image, and likeness) deals. 

The Cheez-It Citrus Bowl recently announced NIL deals, via the game’s title sponsor, for the starting quarterbacks of both teams playing in the Dec. 31 matchup in Orlando. South Carolina freshman LaNorris Sellers and Illinois junior Luke Altmyer are the lucky duo cashing in. Financial details were not released.

While neither Sellers nor Altmyer were major candidates to opt out of their bowl game—a common practice for NFL Draft prospects and transfer portal players these days—the growing influence of NIL deals could keep some bowl games more relevant by retaining star players. Last year, Cheez-It was one of several snack brands that made a profitable mark with wild activations around bowl sponsorships.

Players from Miami (Ohio) and Colorado State are also set to receive NIL deals around their clash in the Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl presented by Gin & Juice by Dre and Snoop (try saying that three times fast) on Saturday. In May, after taking over as the game’s new title sponsor, the rapper announced he had lined up several sponsors to fund NIL pacts for this year’s bowl game. Specifics of those NIL deals have yet to be made public.

NIL deals at bowl games are required to be a shared initiative between the bowls, the participating institutions, and their conferences. Traditionally, bowl games pay participation fees—sometimes several million dollars for premier games—to each school’s conference. That money could be shared with players directly, though, Bowl Season executive director Nick Carparelli previously told Front Office Sports.

“If the conferences and the universities were to tell the bowl games, ‘Hey, we would like these payments to go directly to the student-athletes through NIL,’ then that would be very easy for the bowl games to execute,” said Carparelli, whose organization oversees more than 40 bowl games each year.