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Disney Raising Prices for ESPN+ to $6.99 Per Month/$69.99 Per Year

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Disney today told subscribers that it is raising the price for its ESPN+ standalone streaming service. Starting on August 13, the monthly price will increase from $5.99 to $6.99, and the yearly price will increase from $59.99 per year to $69.99 per year.

disney-espn-plus.jpg

Prices for UFC pay-per-view matches will remain unchanged, and the bundle that includes Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ will not be increasing. That bundle will continue to be priced at $13.99 per month.

This is the second time that Disney has raised ESPN+ pricing, with the cost going up $1 to $5.99 for new subscribers last year.

Disney recently inked a deal with the National Hockey League for 75 exclusive games, and it also acquired rights to live stream Wimbledon. As of April, ESPN+ had close to 14 million subscribers.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with ESPN+. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

Article Link: Disney Raising Prices for ESPN+ to $6.99 Per Month/$69.99 Per Year
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2021/07/12/disney-espn-plus-price-hike/
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I have to admit... Verizon has locked me in with their add ons. It's a big value add for me, and growing by the day. Apple Music, Disney, Discovery, Arcade, etc.

(I wouldn't pay for ESPN+ but I do like their web content)
 
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Apple_Robert said:
What are you going to watch while you bake in the West heat? I pay for Disney+ (3 year deal upfront). I wouldn't pay for ESPN+ unless they ran a special price for hockey season etc.
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Disney+ is worth the price. Not sure about ESPN+ as Dish Network or Direct TV offers Fox Sports and so on.

Vegas Golden Knights were so close this year :(
 
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When my Disney+ sub runs out, I am not going to renew. I decided I am not going to start running up several hundred dollars a month with different subs. I like to watch UFC, hockey and other events but, I am done paying extra for every single thing. lol

If I keep AppleTV+ after November, that, along with all my purchased shows and movies and my ripped content is more than enough to keep me busy.
 
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they added La Liga for next year too.

but where is the one ESPN service with all things ESPN.

Very annoying to get on ESPN+ and every other link is to cable-authenticated ESPN content.

I only subscribe once in awhile for 1 month max.

And I did so this past month. But take Wimbledon, most of the good matches were on cable ESPN. Take Euro 2021, ok they actually had the last few matches on ESPN+ with a real feed, but all the matches before that were some alternative feed with 4 screens and basically were unwatchable unless very desperate. The best thing of the last month was watching the last handful of Top Rank boxing matches. I hadn't paid attention to boxing in awhile and was able to watch not only the most recent fight, but 3 or 4 fight nights from prior weeks/months.

La Liga is something I want to watch, but if they put the 3 big teams on cable only then what's the point. at least for me.
 
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Theyayarealivin said:
smh! Disney has enough money in their bank account. Why are they raising prices? $10.00 more yearly.

Total greed SMH!
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They are raising prices because the NFL is a very expensive program to air (other sports are too just not NFL pricey). ESPN went from 2 billion a year to 2.6+ billion per year average payments to the NFL.
With ESPN's(Disney) cash cow revenue going down -- cable subscriptions trending downward and ESPN being the most expensive channel put on cable packages (your cable or satellite bill is cost of each channel paid by the cable/sat provider + cable/sat provider operational cost) -- the move to raise rates on the streaming side is not surprising at all.
 
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One2Grift said:
They are raising prices because the NFL is a very expensive program to air (other sports are too just not NFL pricey). ESPN went from 2 billion a year to 2.6+ billion per year average payments to the NFL.
With ESPN's(Disney) cash cow revenue going down -- cable subscriptions trending downward and ESPN being the most expensive channel put on cable packages (your cable or satellite bill is cost of each channel paid by the cable/sat provider + cable/sat provider operational cost) -- the move to raise rates on the streaming side is not surprising at all.
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I'd love to see a breakdown of why it's so expensive. Also any answers to questions like why people working for the NFL and ESPN get paid so much.
 
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Theyayarealivin said:
smh! Disney has enough money in their bank account. Why are they raising prices? $10.00 more yearly.

Total greed SMH!
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I had to make sure I was on Macrumors because I’m hearing about someone upset over a $10 per year increase.

I’m not saying I enjoy it either, but coming from Apple fans is… we’ll I can’t be the only one who had a small laugh from this.
 
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Pakaku said:
I'd love to see a breakdown of why it's so expensive. Also any answers to questions like why people working for the NFL and ESPN get paid so much.
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You could replace NFL and ESPN with Apple, but you likely wouldn’t even blink.
 
We knew this would happen as soon as all major sports returned to play after the worldwide Covid lockdown, especially the NFL and MLB here in the U.S. What was there to actually watch from April to December last year? The NBA Bubble? Hah!
 
ESPN+ is essentially a superset of ESPN3.

Disney charges over $9/month to cable, satellite, and streaming TV services for ESPN and its sibling channels. If that's true, I think Disney can offer 2 tiers for ESPN+: Basic at $6.99/month and Premium at $12.99/month, maybe even $14.99/month if Premium streams at 4K HDR.

Also, ESPN+ has pretty lousy UI. While Disney+ isn't the greatest streaming app in the world, it is far more logically organized and more pleasant looking. Use that as a template to improve ESPN+ design.
 
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