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5 Things to Know About the Updated ESPN App

Paul Melvin August 8, 2024

EDITOR’S NOTE: Images/Animation courtesy ESPN.

As the leading digital sports platform, ESPN is committed to building world-class products and delivering a streaming experience that matches the excellence of our content. Fans expect a seamless, low-friction experience that allows them to watch their favorite content in the best possible quality. To do that, we are constantly making iterative advances to the ESPN App and introducing new features that improve the experience.

In the latest update to the ESPN App (released recently on iOS and Android, tvOS, AndroidTV and FireTV, and coming soon to Roku) we’ve added new navigation, new ways to find and discover content, and explore the breadth of sports ESPN has to offer.

The new opening logo animation for the ESPN App on connected TV devices.

Enhanced Navigation

This update modernizes the navigation in a connected TV device environment, moving to a left-aligned, vertical menu, similar to experiences on Hulu and Disney+. We’ve also updated some menu items to help our fans more easily get to the content they’re looking for.

New primary navigation is left aligned, similar to the experience with Disney+ and Hulu.

“This is the foundation to many of the advanced features and quality of experience enhancements we are bringing to connected devices and the ‘Watch’ experience on mobile. We are really leaning into easier, more delightful content discovery for our users.”
– Malcom Jones, Senior Product Manager, Disney Entertainment & ESPN Technology

Explore Row

Quickly access the content you care about with the new ‘Explore’ row in the ‘Watch’ experience of the ESPN app. Here you’ll find the most relevant films, series, events and more, all featured in one convenient location.

“We found that fans were looking for ways to quickly jump into timely and highly relevant content, often beyond just our live events. We’ve worked with our editorial teams to help surface the most relevant, engaging content in one place.”
– Phil Getzen, Director of Product, Disney Entertainment & ESPN Technology

Video Headers

New video headers allow our editorial teams to showcase content in immersive, engaging ways. Fans will get a dynamic preview of a film, series or event right away.

“Our teams did an amazing job collaborating on our ‘Watch’ catalog header improvements. The ability to show ambient video on our headers greatly improves the user experience for our fans by providing a new and easy way to discover content that they didn’t have before.”
– Randi Abe, Sr Manager, Software Engineering, Disney Entertainment & ESPN Technology

Inline Headers

Inline headers are a big and bold new way to present marquee films, series and featured events to fans. Similar to those found in Hulu and Disney+, these headers boldly showcase pieces of an ever-growing content library.

“Bringing inline headers to ESPN for the first time was a fun and interesting design challenge. Working across our teams, we built a visually strong and compelling experience we think users will love.”
– Ethan Coy, Product Designer, Disney Entertainment & ESPN Technology

Live Breakout Rows

Live Breakout Rows introduces a dynamic browsing experience that assists fans in finding the content they care about most. When there’s a high volume of available events (ESPN can stream up to 200+ concurrent live events!), the app will present dedicated rows of related content from various sports and/or leagues and add new row “cap” treatment (on Web and select connected TV platforms) – giving the fan context to the number of live events.

Breakout Rows present rows of related live events with easy to understand context.

“Breakout Rows enhance discovery of live events and shows, especially on the busiest days of the sports calendar.”
– Tom LeBeau, Principal Product Manager, Disney Entertainment & ESPN Technology