ESPN’s long-awaited direct-to-consumer streaming service will arrive in Fall 2025. But before we get carried away with sports streaming market projections, it’s important to note that since Q2 2023, ESPN+ (priced at $11.99 a month) had plateaued to 25 million subscribers. Disney needed a new strategy—especially since ESPN+ was originally launched in 2017 and was starting to feel outdated, but also to offer a broader content slate, until now only available on pay TV. ESPN+ is a standalone D2C offering that is required in addition to an ESPN pay TV subscription—complementary to ESPN channels (ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SEC, ACC) available on pay TV and the TV everywhere app. Additionally, Disney has been looking for ways to reach the 60 million…