Dish Hops On ESPN’s Fantasy Football App

In time for the rest of the first week of NFL regular season games, Dish Network said it has stitched the ESPN Fantasy Football app to its Hopper Whole-Home DVR, giving gridiron fans a way to track their players and teams in real time on the big screen while they watch or record the games.

The app, which is compatible with multiple ESPN fantasy leagues, uses an L-shaped layout, placing fantasy data on the bottom and right side of the TV screen. It’s designed to automatically resize the viewing screen to display fantasy league stats without obstructing the live game. The app also features weekly matchups within a league, bench stats, individual player and defensive team profiles, and in-progress box stores.

Dish said the app will roll out to Dish customers starting Friday night. Dish doesn’t break down how many of its 14 million video customers are on the Hopper, but in January disclosed that about 6 million “screens” were powered by  Hopper platform.

To get on board, customers must create a league at es.pn/ffl, and then sign in to the app on the Hopper with their ESPN fantasy football username and password. The app will be accessible from any channel by clicking the blue button on the DISH remote and selecting the ESPN Fantasy Football icon.

“Increasingly fans use mobile devices to immerse themselves in fantasy data as they watch live football games,” said Jimshade Chaudhari, Dish director of product management, in a statement. “This app streamlines the NFL football viewing experience by consolidating real-time action and fantasy stats on one screen.”