This is big news from ESPN. I’ve been writing for a few years now that there would come a day when you, the reader, also a sports fan, will have to pay a premium for ESPN and the individual games it broadcasts. That day may be next year. From Market Watch:

The Walt Disney Co. will launch an independent ESPN streaming service in 2018, but viewers will still need a subscription to a cable bundle to access content airing on ESPN channels.

In effect, Disney DIS, -5.44%  will build out the current WatchESPN streaming app to include access to other subscription streaming packages, and sell access to some content not airing on its ESPN networks on a subscription basis. Disney Chief Executive Robert Iger suggested Tuesday afternoon that viewers will be able to pay to stream specific games and potentially new packages that ESPN builds.

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Disney has been developing and speaking about an independent ESPN streaming service for a year, since spending $1 billion on a stake in BAMTech, a startup spun out of Major League Baseball’s tech division that was an early leader in streaming sports content directly to consumers. The company announced Tuesday that it will spend another $1.58 billion to increase its stake in BAMTech from 33% to 75%, making it the controlling owner.

Partners in BAMTech include MLB as well as the National Hockey League, and both of those sports leagues, as well as Major League Soccer, will offer their streaming services on the new ESPN platform. In this way, it will in some ways resemble its own sports-focused “skinny bundle,” with subscribers to the different services able to access them in one ESPN-branded platform.

“In the first year of operation, it should offer consumers approximately 10,000 additional live sporting events over what ESPN offers on its linear networks,” Iger said of the ESPN package. “This is a combination of the contribution of the partners, as well as what BAMTech has licensed, as well as what ESPN will provide and has also licensed to BAMTech.”

Knowing that the fight against cord cutting is a losing battle, Disney wants to make both its non-sports and sports content available as part of separate streaming services. The way I understand it is that all currently available ESPN programming would be available in the app along with other tier 2 sports – tennis, e-sports and so on – and possible individual games from the league pass services BAM* operates. If you are a current cable subscriber, you would have access to the app and get, for no additional cost, at least all of what is currently available on the networks, but you would likely still have to pay for additional content. Others would have to pay, I’m guessing a premium, to subscribe to the app and or purchase individual games or even portions of games. Those costs will most likely be much higher than the $7 or so per month you pay to ESPN if you have a cable package.

We’re entering a time with a major paradigm shift in all content– from the written word to premium video. For years, the model for most of that stuff was to gain the largest audience possible and then figure out a way to monetize it, usually through advertising. But with the complete democratization of everything, advertising alone has become an unsustainable business model. On one hand, money still rolls up to the big players – online it’s Google and Facebook – making it hard for smaller independent guys to get a slice of the pie. On the other hand, the premiums that newspapers, networks and others were able to command, by being one of the few options for advertisers to reach a mass audience, have all but disappeared due to the availability of more targeted and varied options. Throw in cord cutting as a problem impacting networks and cable providers, and you have the perfect storm to dismantle content monetization as we know it.

The recent trend, which it seems ESPN will take part in, is having consumers pay for quality content. In one way, that’s a much more sustainable business model. Having 10k people pay you for something is better than giving it away to 100k people and then trying to make money by hitting them over the head with advertising. For the consumer, however, it means paying for things they’re used to getting for free or for a very nominal cost. Will sports fans pay $20 per month for ESPN? How about $40? $60? Who knows. The bundle economics and the annoying ads we all hate have long supported content for a relatively cheap or mild inconvenience.

That’s all changing. We’re going to start paying for things, directly. A few bucks here, a few bucks there. Maybe many bucks for ESPN. It makes all the sense in the world, but it’s jarring because we’re not used to having to pay for most of that stuff. The key to making it all work is for outlets to provide quality content. It becomes a much more traditional proposition– I made something good, will you pay for it? I think if the content’s good enough, people will.

*BAM was founded by all 30 Major League teams as a technology company to stream MLB games and run the ecommerce portion of the league. They are credited with having perhaps the best streaming video technology around, certainly for sports. They have since taken on streaming NCAA games, hockey and much more. They are the dominant player in the field, and Disney will be taking a controlling stake in them, which will presumably give Disney access to the events they stream.