Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Broadcasting & Cable
Broadcasting & Cable
Business
Daniel Frankel

ESPN To Link Its App and Website Users Directly to RSNs

NESN.

Seeking to position its technology as a digital hub for all things team sports, ESPN is making its streaming app and its website a platform to help regional sports network subscribers to watch their teams. 

Starting this week, as the Boston Red Sox begin their 2024, season, the ESPN app and ESPN.com will provide users with links, in areas such as live score tickers, directly to the team's exclusive RSN home, New England Sports Network.

Links to SportsNet Pittsburgh, home to the MLB's Pittsburgh Pirates and NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins, will be added to ESPN at a later date. And Monumental Sports Network -- RSN home to the NHL's Washington Capitals, NBA's Washington Wizards, and WNBA's Washington Mystics -- will be linked by ESPN starting in May, timed to the start of the WNBA season.

An ESPN rep told Next TV that the linkage is part of a strategy to ebb user frustration over sports programming fragmentation. (Deadline first reported this story.)

With ESPN still charging users close to $10 a month to access its walled garden, integrating ESPN adds value. For the RSNs, meanwhile, ESPN delivers reach. ESPN Digital said it set a record last year by drawing 111.4 million average monthly unique visitors.

“We pledged to make our games more easily accessible for fans, and this partnership is a big step in that direction,” Zach Leonsis, president of media and new enterprises for Monumental Sports & Entertainment, told Deadline.  

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.