ESPN is raising the cost of its standalone ESPN Plus streaming service from $6.99 per month to $9.99 per month, an almost 43 percent increase, beginning August 23, as reported before by Sports Business Journal. The annual plan cost is also going up from $69.99 to $99.99.
Suppose you acquire your streaming ESPN service as a part of the Disney bundle; however, which packages ESPN Plus, Disney Plus, and ad-supported Hulu for $13.99 per month, that will stay at the exact price as before.
The service’s website and support pages haven’t been updated to mirror the increase. Still, a statement sent over by Disney spokesperson Paul Melvin suggests subscribers will be notified next week.
The price change recollects how even as moving between services and packages becomes more relaxed as we move beyond the standard cable bundle, access isn’t as cheap as it once appeared. For example, ESPN Plus increased its price last year, and now there’s an even steeper increase. In addition, ESPN points out that content deals it signs increasingly include ESPN Plus components and the access to editorial content on its website that subscribers get.
Still, if your goal is unfettered access to standalone sports streaming, then it’s nearer than it has ever been and much further away as Disney’s pricing encourages taking the bundle — even if that’s not what you want.
ESPN+ is an American over-the-top subscription video streaming service available nationally, possessed by Disney Media and Ent. In partnership with ESPN Inc., distribution is a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company and Hearst Communications. It is one of Disney’s three flagship subscription streaming brands in the United States, alongside Disney+ and Hulu. It operates using the technology of Disney subsidiary BAMTech, now known as Disney Streaming Services.
ESPN+ is marketed as an add-on to ESPN’s core linear networks, with some of ESPN+’s content previously offered exclusively to cable subscribers via ESPN3 and the WatchESPN app. However, ESPN+ does not include access to these services, as they continue to only be available through television providers. Thus, some of ESPN’s sports rights are not carried on ESPN+.
Featured content on ESPN+ includes combat sports, college sports, hockey, rugby union, soccer, golf, tennis, and cricket. In addition, significant League Baseball’s out-of-market sports package, also operated through BAMTech, is sold through the platform as an add-on. The service also features archive content, ESPN original documentaries, and access to premium content on ESPN.com.
On January 1, 2022, ESPN+ had 21.3 million subscribers. As of May 11, 2022, ESPN+ has 22.3 million subscribers.
In May 2018, the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) announced new five-year digital and linear television rights deals with ESPN, effective January 2019. As a result, 20 live UFC on ESPN+ Fight Night events per year is streamed exclusively by the service, and preliminaries for ten live UFC on ESPN Fight Night events per year. In addition, ESPN+ will also hold rights to supplemental content such as Dana White’s Contender Series, archive content, and PPV encores and offer sales of UFC Fight Pass within the platform. The first ESPN+ event, UFC Fight Night: Cejudo vs. Dillashaw, generated 525,000 new subscribers on the day of the event alone.
On March 18, 2019, it was reported that ESPN had reached a two-year extension of its contract with the UFC. As a result, beginning with UFC 236, ESPN+ became the exclusive U.S. distributor of all UFC pay-per-view events for residential customers; they are no longer sold through television providers, and viewers must have an ESPN+ subscription to buy them.