ESPN College Extra is now in the process of shutting down. ESPN introduced its college sports service, ESPN College Sports, back in August of 2015, with the first broadcast taking place in September 2015 with the ACC Wofford vs. Clemson game.
Even though Disney or ESPN have yet to officially announce the closure of the channel, Streaming Better has learned that ESPN College Extra is due to be shut down later this month. Specifically, on August 15.
While ESPN still lists both DirecTV and Verizon Fios as providers, DirecTV appeared to have already started removing the channel from its lineup. The channel is still listed in the guide, but subscribers are now presented with a warning message advising that ESPN College Extra is no longer available.
We also noticed that DirecTV seemed to be in the process of removing mentions of ESPN College Extra from its website and help pages. For example, a Watch College Sports Year Long With ESPN College Extra editorial piece by DirecTV, published just a few days ago, had already been taken offline again.
On the streaming side, Hulu Live TV was largely the only live TV streaming service offering access to ESPN College Extra, but that also seems to have changed recently. While we couldn’t confirm exactly when Hulu Live TV dropped ESPN College Extra from its lineup, we do believe the live TV service stopped advertising the channel in May or June of this year.
Similar to DirecTV, Hulu Live TV also appears to be in the process of removing mention of ESPN College Extra on its website and help pages. For example, its main Watch ESPN College Extra Network page had recently been replaced with a generic ‘choose your plan’ page.
Following the closure of the channel on August 15, the majority of ESPN College Extra events will be available to stream on ESPN+.
