The app will offer two subscription plans and grant access to ESPN's full content slate outside of the traditional TV bundle for the first time.

In an effort to provide content to ‘a new generation of consumers,’ Thursday change should have a broad impact.

That may sound like a lot of fanfare, but ESPN’s new direct-to-consumer service has launched with much less of a circus than a media industry watcher might have expected one, three, even five years ago. That’s because ESPN is releasing a revolutionary new project that it doesn’t really want you to buy.