“We’ve put a lot of hard work into this launch, with the full force of ESPN and Disney behind it, and we can’t wait for fans to experience all of ESPN in the ESPN App. The best part is, we’re just getting started.”
That was ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro reflecting on the scale and ambition of the new, enhanced ESPN App launch.
But what does some of that hard work actually look like?
For two of the leaders driving this innovation – Joshua Barbarotta, Sr. Director, Digital Video Content, and Dominic Ridgard, Sr. Director, Audience Engagement, Streaming – it meant late nights, months of testing, constant feedback loops, and hands-on problem-solving alongside partners across ESPN and Disney.
TESTING SPORTSCENTER FOR YOU
For Barbarotta, SportsCenter For You was “over a year in the making,” relying on constant collaboration with groups across ESPN: Product, Engineering, Design, Stats & Analysis, Digital Editorial and ESPN Edge Innovation Partner, WSC Sports.
“Over the final month, we really hit our stride,” he said, “integrating new production workflows and producing daily test episodes.”
By launch day, Aug. 21, 2025, his team was ready and delivering nearly 60 pieces of content for the debut episode full of personalized highlights, custom segments, Instant Analysis and team-specific news videos.
“SportsCenter For You is a sizable undertaking from a content perspective, and I’m fortunate to lead a team that met the challenge to deliver on the promise of a daily, personalized SportsCenter for fans.”
Though the feature is powered by AI, Barbarotta emphasizes that SportsCenter For You still depends on human touch.
“AI helps generate a storyline for each team highlight, headline, caption, and even narration in the amazing voice profiles of [commentators] Hannah Storm, Christine Williamson, Gary Striewski, and Omar Raja (Best of SportsNation). But there’s always a human in the loop. Our team checks each script, highlight and makes necessary edits before publishing into an episode. The team also assists the AI voice process by crafting scripts for daily segments like League Recaps, SC Top Plays, and SportsNation.”
PERSONALIZING VERTS
Barbarotta also helped bring Verts to life — a new vertical video hub in the ESPN App.
“What makes Verts a dream for sports fans is that they can scroll through our top-quality highlights and studio show clips alongside industry-leading content from our Social team, all in one place,” he explained. “We’re leveraging both explicit and implicit personalization to serve content and leaning into a lot of the same functionality that fans have become accustomed to on TikTok, YouTube Shorts and IG Reels.”
Unlike other platforms with endless global content for every genre and topic, Verts is rooted in ESPN’s rights and storytelling.
The name itself was Barbarotta’s idea.
“It just came to me one day about two years ago,” he said. “I thought it worked because it was short and catchy — like Reels — but also had a sports connotation. I was persistent about sticking with it as the best possible name for our vertical video experience, and eventually it stuck.”
For him, Verts isn’t just a product, but a vision: “We couldn’t be more fired up about what Verts means for the future of serving sports fans with video in the ESPN App.”
REINVENTING CATCH UP TO LIVE
On the highlights side, Barbarotta points to the immense challenge of creating Catch Up To Live, a feature designed to let fans instantly watch the key plays they missed.
“From a content perspective, the biggest challenge was around pulling together the inventory to match the robust programming being offered as part of ESPN DTC,” he said.
“Working with long-time partner WSC Sports, as well as ESPN’s Stats & Analysis and Software Engineering teams, the group scaled to support 240 concurrent live streams, producing nearly 200,000 highlights for more than 16,000 events annually. This was ESPN’s largest clip output ever.”
REFINING STREAMCENTER
For Ridgard, his team’s focus was on features that would transform how fans engage across devices.
StreamCenter, which allows fans to sync their mobile and TV experience, was put through rigorous testing in the final weeks before launch.
“It starts with understanding the user journey and expected behavior for fans,” he said. “Our partners on our product teams did a great job of educating us on how the feature is expected to work across all devices and platforms.”
“We focused on two things: how easy it was for fans to enter the experience, and whether it enhanced viewing. That feedback, from a fan’s perspective, was key to refining the product.”
BALANCING MULTIVIEW
Ridgard also led work on Multiview, which lets fans watch up to four games simultaneously.
The challenge, he said, was balancing the feature’s power with simplicity.
“Multiview offers a great service but can also overwhelm the traditional viewing experience. Our strategy is to prominently feature high-impact Multiviews, and use a dedicated placement with our Multiview schedule for fans who want to dive deeper into the experience.”
A NEW EXPERIENCE ON DISNEY+
For Ridgard, launch day wasn’t just about the ESPN App.
“All of the content we launched in the app went live the very same day ESPN debuted on Disney+,” he said.
“That gave us the unique challenge of delivering across two platforms at once — introducing new tools to our core fans in the app, while also reaching a brand-new audience through Disney+. It was a powerful reminder of the scale of what we’re building. We’re not only refining the way fans engage with ESPN, we’re expanding who gets to experience it.”
STAYING HANDS-ON AFTER LAUNCH
For both Barbarotta and Ridgard, the launch wasn’t the ninth inning, but the first.
“The goal of providing the best user experience for fans hasn’t changed,” said Ridgard. “Now we just have more immersive tools to help us get there. The benefit we have in audience engagement is that we live in our platforms every day.”
“The launch is step one — our job is to stay hands-on, monitor how fans actually use these features, and keep optimizing.”
