Neither ESPN or CNN will be going streaming only anytime soon and no one has hinted that.
With ESPN, the plan is to offer a streaming version alongside the Live TV Provider’s version, the main reason is to make up the per sub fees lost ( now over 30 million households have left Paid Live TV out of 100 Million).
By the time ESPN streaming launches in late 2025, early 2026, there will still be about 50 Million Households subscribing to Live TV, no way will they give up on those per sub fees, but there will be 80 Million Households ( out of 130 Million households total in the United States) that are Cord Cutters/Nevers that Disney wants to draw from, how many will subscribe is a unknown number.
With CNN, plan is to add the Live Feed to MAX, they are already going to do so in other markets.