Folks may have heard that Disney paid a billion dollars last week for a 33% stake in BamTech--the company started by Major League Baseball that powers online streaming for MLB and a number of other sports leagues. The media reports I've seen quote Disney brass as saying we can expect a new ESPN-Branded online subscription streaming service. The service won't replicate content that is currently on the ESPN broadcast networks. The NY Times said we can expect it to show "baseball, hockey, tennis, cricket and college sports — mostly rights that are already owned by ESPN but not televised." This is basically would include much of ESPN3 soccer programming. Given the significant amount of soccer they show only on ESPN3, are we now going to be expected to pay additional subscription fees for stuff currently available solely on ESPN3 (Copa Mx, UEFA content, etc...)? That seems to be the writing on the wall. Here is a link to the NY Times article on the deal.
I don't see this changing much for people who already access WatchESPN and ESPN3 as a result of having a cable subscription. What it looks more likely is that Disney is going to offer an ESPN3-type service as a standalone subscription for cord-cutters.