April 12, 2018
Cullowhee, N.C. -
ESPN today launched its new, standalone subscription-based streaming platform – ESPN+ – which will impact Western Carolina fans’ ability to watch selected home and away events for the remainder of this athletic year beginning this weekend with the baseball series at VMI.
Prior to the launch of ESPN+, cable and satellite subscribers with ESPN programming could watch all WCU-produced events for ESPN3 (E3) for no additional charge, including Catamount football, men's and women's basketball, volleyball, and baseball games, as well as any away contests also produced for E3 by fellow SoCon member institutions.
While the E3 platform will continue, ESPN informed the Southern Conference it will move select institutional productions from E3 to ESPN+, which will require subscribers to pay $4.99 per month to view – or an annual subscription fee of $49.99. ESPN retains the contractual right to place WCU and SoCon member institutional content on any ESPN platform of its choosing.
The league office issued a statement regarding the programming switch: “Based on its agreement with the Southern Conference, ESPN has the contractual authority to shift collegiate athletic events from ESPN3 to the newly-launched ESPN+. This movement of content is also occurring at many other Division I conferences that partner with ESPN.”
The network did announce a special 30-day free trial subscription to ESPN+ backed by American Express, offering both cardholders and non-cardholders an extended free trial subscription during the first week of launch (April 12-18). As part of its sponsorship, American Express will also be the presenting sponsor of the entire 30 for 30 library, available only on ESPN+. The standard ESPN+ free trial period will be seven days.
Only two of WCU’s remaining home contests – the April 20 and April 22 baseball games against Mercer – will be affected by the move to ESPN+ as the two broadcasts of the April 27-29 ETSU series currently remain on ESPN3. The Saturday game of the WCU-Mercer series is scheduled for linear television, locally on WMYA-TV My40 with a live stream available through the SoCon Digital Network.
Western Carolina is scheduled to produce over 40 home events on ESPN this year.
Upcoming Catamount Baseball Broadcast Schedule:
| Fri., April 13 |
Baseball at VMI (Lexington, Va.) |
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| Sat., April 14 |
Baseball at VMI (Lexington, Va.) |
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| Sun., April 15 |
Baseball at VMI (Lexington, Va.) |
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| Fri., April 20 |
Baseball vs. Mercer (Cullowhee) |
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| Sat., April 21 |
Baseball vs. Mercer (Cullowhee) |
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| Sun., April 22 |
Baseball vs. Mercer (Cullowhee) |
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| Wed., April 25 |
Baseball at North Carolina (Chapel Hill) |
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| Fri., April 27 |
Baseball vs. ETSU (Cullowhee) |
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| Sun., April 29 |
Baseball vs. ETSU (Cullowhee) |
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Viewers can learn more about the new ESPN+ service at the following line: ESPN Media Zone
More about ESPN+
ESPN+ will be the first-ever multi-sport, direct-to-consumer subscription streaming service from The Walt Disney Company’s Direct-to-Consumer and International group in partnership with ESPN. It will offer fans thousands of additional live events, on-demand content and original programming not available on ESPN’s linear TV or digital networks. This includes hundreds of MLB, NHL and MLS games, Grand Slam tennis, Top Rank boxing, PGA Tour golf, college sports, international rugby, cricket, the full library of ESPN Films (including 30 for 30) and more. Fans can subscribe to ESPN+ for just $4.99 a month (or $49.99 per year) and cancel at any time.
Launching April 12, 2018, ESPN+ will be an integrated part of a completely redesigned ESPN App. Already the leading sports app, the new ESPN App will be the premier all-in-one digital sports platform for fans and is a showcase of the company’s culture of innovation. With a richer, increasingly more personalized experience, the new ESPN App will curate all of ESPN’s incredible content into an experience unique to each fan’s individual tastes. ESPN+ will also be available through ESPN.com.
