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\n Monday should be one of the biggest days in the young history of ESPN<\/a>\u2019s $30-per-month direct-to-consumer<\/a> streaming<\/a> service as the Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a> face the Houston Texans<\/a> to close the NFL<\/a>\u2018s wild-card round.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n Fans not able to watch Disney-owned ABC or ESPN on traditional TV platforms can turn to the new digital one to catch the action. Streaming options often see signup spikes when offering even non-exclusive NFL playoff action, and this should be no different, given last year\u2019s ABC\/ESPN broadcast of Rams vs. Vikings drew an average audience of more than 25 million viewers.<\/p>\n \n But there\u2019s\u00a0another<\/em>\u00a0relatively new way to watch Monday\u2019s game on the market too: a $5 Sling TV<\/a> Day Pass, which has been the subject of legal scrutiny\u2014and industry chatter\u2014since its August launch.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n As TV has moved online, consumer flexibility and choice have swelled. Long-term contractual commitments have been disrupted by month-to-month cable-like services such as YouTube TV, while large bundles of channels are being displaced by so-called skinny bundles such as Fubo\u2019s sports-specific package.<\/p>\n \n Sling TV was early to the slimmed-down trend, splitting its offering into Orange and Blue packages, each currently $46 per month. But its newest entry takes things a step (or three) further, letting users buy a single day\u2019s access to Sling Orange\u2014which includes ESPN and 30+ other channels\u2014for $5, three days for $10, or seven days for $15.<\/p>\n \n If fans sign up for any of those short-term packages Monday, ESPN might not see a dime. The same is true for a day pass timed to next Monday\u2019s college football title game.<\/p>\n \n Disney sued Sling owner Dish<\/a> Network over the product in August, within two weeks of its launch. As legal filings have made clear, Sling pays Disney based on the number of subscribers it has on the 21st of each month. People who sign up for a week\u2019s worth of access starting Monday to watch two NFL playoff games seemingly wouldn\u2019t be accounted for (though if someone signed up on the 21st, Sling would presumably pay a month\u2019s worth of fees to Disney).\u00a0<\/p>\n \n \u201cSling TV\u2019s new offerings, which they made available without our knowledge or consent, violate the terms of our existing license agreement,\u201d a Disney spokesperson said at the time of the lawsuit\u2019s filing. Another impacted content owner, CNN and TNT-owner Warner Bros. Discovery, sued Sling shortly thereafter. Sling called the claims \u201cmeritless.\u201d The suits are still being adjudicated, with a particular emphasis on what the term \u201csubscription<\/a>\u201d means in the relevant contracts. A judge denied an injunction request from Disney and WBD in the meantime.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n \u201cThis is the deal ESPN and Disney don\u2019t want you to know about,\u201d a Sling executive\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0in a September press release. \u201cOur Day, Weekend and Week Pass subscriptions are just another way we\u2019re fighting to bring customers the programming they want with the flexibility they deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n \n Last week, Dish Network levied a lawsuit of its own,\u00a0accusing<\/a>\u00a0Disney of illegally tying its products together. Dish argued that it is forced to pay for multiple channels, including less popular programming, if it wants to offer customers access to ESPN, all while Disney itself sells slimmed down packages such as a bundle of ESPN\u2019s direct-to-consumer service and Fox One, or the Disney-owned Fubo Sports product.\u00a0This time, it was Disney\u2019s turn to\u2014through a spokesperson\u2014call the claims meritless.<\/p>\n \n While the games look the same for fans watching at home, the web of relationships getting content from stadium grass to TV glass has undergone a revolution in recent years.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n Content owners and distributors were frenemies in the best of times. Now, most channel operators have launched direct-to-consumer products; CBS, Fox, NBC and ABC\/ESPN\u2019s playoff action were available on their own services this weekend. Meanwhile some distributors have edged their way out of the video business to focus on selling more lucrative internet packages. And everyone is forced to compete with pure digital players like Amazon, Netflix and YouTube, who are amassing their own sets of sports rights. The angst has boiled over into a serious of corporate clashes, from Fubo\u2019s\u00a0protest<\/a>\u00a0of Venu Sports to Disney and YouTube TV\u2019s prolonged 2025 carriage\u00a0battle<\/a>\u00a0to the ongoing Sling-Disney dispute.<\/p>\n \n The video distribution landscape will likely look completely different in the near future, with certain players not surviving the shift. That makes some of these contestations existential, particularly for smaller combatants. This January, it\u2019s not just NFL teams facing win-or-go-home stakes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Monday should be one of the biggest days in the young history of ESPN\u2019s $30-per-month direct-to-consumer streaming service as the Pittsburgh Steelers face the Houston Texans to close the NFL\u2018s wild-card round.\u00a0 Fans not able to watch Disney-owned ABC or ESPN on traditional TV platforms can turn to the new digital one to catch the … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16743,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Steelers-Texans-Streaming-Option-At-Heart-of-ESPN-Sling-Lawsuit.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16742"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16742\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16744,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16742\/revisions\/16744"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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