ESPN owns the summer on Disney+ with live sports and live ads

Disney Advertising hosted its ESPN 2025 Upfront for New Zealand media agencies and clients on October 23.

Held in Auckland, the presentation introduced a new way to engage sports fans by launching dynamic ad insertion (DAI) within ESPN live sports content on Disney+. This technology allows Disney+ to serve targeted digital ads directly within live sports streams.

“Previously, ESPN ads were simply passed through from Sky linear and shown on Disney+,” says Nik Weber, commercial director at Disney Advertising ANZ.

“Now, we’re rolling out our own ad technology to replace those with digital ads delivered directly by Disney+.”

Own the summer

ESPN is New Zealand’s primary rights holder for top US premium sports, says Weber.

For Kiwis who love to hoop, ESPN delivers more than 270 NBA games – including All-Star Weekend, the Playoffs and the Finals – plus extensive WNBA coverage and every NBL and WNBL game.

Meanwhile, football fans can catch more NFL games than on any other platform in the region, with every US primetime game streamed live.

“We like to own the summer more than anything else,” he adds.

“From October to March, we have the vast majority of our sports in season. The NBA season literally starts this week, the NBL season began a couple of weeks ago and the NFL last month. These leagues run through to at least February, with the NBA continuing until June. So, we really like to own the summer months – that’s when we’re particularly strong.

“Without the limitations of traditional linear networks, we’re also able to expand our sports coverage beyond ESPN and ESPN2 to include premium events like Wimbledon, the US Open and the Uefa Women’s Champions League,” says Weber.

New advertising integration opportunities

The wide range of content on ESPN provides advertising and integration opportunities for partners.

The new ESPN SVOD (subscription video on demand) offering will be powered by the Disney Ad Server, with every ad break in ESPN live sports content fully addressable and delivered digitally.

“SVOD gives advertisers control over audience delivery – allowing them to schedule ads to reach the right audience at the right time, during the right sports,” says Weber.

This innovation also lays the groundwork for additional advanced capabilities during live sport throughout 2026, including Disney’s audience targeting solution, Disney Select. 

Growing reach and cultural relevance

Magnite will be the launch programmatic ad partner on Disney+ in New Zealand with all advertising opportunities serviced exclusively by the local Disney Advertising team. 

“By expanding rights, deepening our coverage and innovating in distribution, ESPN has grown both its reach and cultural relevance,” says Weber.

“We’re excited to provide advertisers with this new best-in-class ad solution in live sports to connect with and engage our next-generation sports fans on Disney+ for the first time ever.” 

Disney Advertising NZ sales manager Rita Steel adds: “It’s a privilege to be bringing the best advertising technology, on the best streaming platform in market to Kiwi advertisers and agencies. In live sport, we’re seeing a 47% increase in ad attention, for brands that means stronger outcomes, better performance and deeper emotional connections with our fanbase.” 

The post ESPN owns the summer on Disney+ with live sports and live ads appeared first on stoppress.co.nz.

stoppress.co.nz