ESPN+ Set For Another Price Hike In October

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ESPN continues to creep the price of it’s ESPN+ service, and let’s not forget the $40+ dollar Venu service it’s launching soon.

ESPN+ continues to have the same old problems with no signs they will be fixed. The only thing that changes? The price, which is set to go up again this October.

If you’re an American MMA fan that wants to watch UFC legally, you have to do it through ESPN+. That’s where all the UFC Fight Nights get broadcast, and where you can buy pay-per-view events. The streaming subscription service debuted in 2018 for just $4.99 a month, and the UFC was a big driver of sales. Over the years things crept up: by 2022, the price had basically doubled to $9.99. Last October it went up to $10.99, and this October it’s set to be $11.99.

A decent amount of money considering how unreliable the app can be when it comes to, ya know, streaming UFC pay-per-view events without issues. Everyone reading this knows the stress of loading up the PPV you just bought for $69.99 and hoping ESPN+ recognizes you’ve paid for it. If not, good luck. Because that extra dollar a month they keep tacking on hasn’t gone towards tech support, that’s for sure.

As time goes on, we may end up reminiscing fondly over the days where we only had to pay twelve bucks for the ability to pay for pay-per-views. Sitting on the horizon is Venu, the new sports streaming team-up service from Disney, FOX, and Warner Bros. Discovery that’s expected to cost $42.99. A month. Really!

The UFC is sitting in a great position as their broadcast deal with ESPN expires in late 2025. Execs know that MMA fans follow the sport wherever it goes and are willing to pay for access to it. With that kind of data in hand, we’d be shocked if a chunk of UFC programming doesn’t get placed on Venu to try and entice us to join up. Or will it end up on the ESPN ‘flagship’ streaming service, which is separate from Venu.

“We could end up like the NBA and the NFL, where we end up on multiple channels instead of just one,” UFC CEO Dana White said, which sounds like a good way to end up having to spend the price of a pay- per-view every month just to access the services carrying UFC events. Not great.

Unless it means the end of the $69.99 pay-per-view. TKO president Mark Shapiro teased that PPV-level events could end up being free for subscribers to a high-price sports streaming service.

“If you’re trying to launch ESPN flagship,” he said at a JP Morgan tech conference, “And you’re trying to charge $29, $39.99, whatever it might be, what better than to have a monthly ‘pay-per- view’ that sits exclusive to that platform?”

We have a hard time imagining boardroom types going in this direction when there’s evidence to show they can double dip with subscription AND pay-per-view fees. But we can hope, right?