You Can Now Watch ESPN’s ‘The Ocho’ 24/7 And It Won’t Cost You A Cent

20th Century Studios

It’s been close to 20 years since the world was introduced to ESPN8—a.k.a. “The Ocho”—after it appeared as a fictional channel in Dodgeball. However, the network eventually decided to embrace a concept that can now be watched 24 hours a day with no subscription required.

Anyone who grew up watching ESPN2 on weekends knows The Worldwide Leader used it to showcase sports like bowling, fishing, and lumberjack competitions, and Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story decided to run with that concept by inventing ESPN8 for the film.

In 2017, the folks at ESPN decided to turn parody into reality by transforming ESPNU into “The Ocho” for a day filled with disc golf, cornhole, roller derby, and (of course) dodgeball.

The experiment turned out to be pretty successful, and ESPN has routinely revived the concept since then while adding new competitions you didn’t know you needed in your life (or didn’t even know existed in the first place).

While The Ocho has typically been an annual event, ESPN has decided to go all-in, as the network recently announced it’s launching its first-ever FAST (Free Ad-supported Streaming TV) channel packed to the brim with “The Best of Seldom Seen Sports.”

FAST channels have become all the rage in recent years with the help of the various platforms that have embraced the traditional cable model while relying entirely on commercials for revenue as opposed to charging users for a monthly subscription (costs are comparatively low when you consider the lineup usually consists of long-running syndicated shows from a bygone era).

ESPN8 will be available on the ABC app in addition to a dedicated website where you won’t even need to sign in if you want to get your weird sports fix (I’m currently very invested in the Spikeball showdown that was playing when I started writing this).

Long live The Ocho.