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Serbian Novak Djokovic celebrates winning the third set against Italy’s Matteo Berrettini in their men’s singles final match on Day 13 of the 2021 Wimbledon Championships at the All England Tennis Club in Wimbledon, southwest London, on July 11, 2021.
Peter Nicholls | AFP | Getty Images
Disney is raising the price of ESPN + by a dollar a month to $ 6.99 after agreeing to a slew of new sports rights deals this year.
Annual ESPN + subscribers will now pay $ 69.99 per year instead of $ 59.99 per year, effective August 13. Disney is not changing its $ 13.99 per month plan for ESPN +, Hulu, and Disney +. Pay-per-view prices for Ultimate Fighting Championship matches broadcast exclusively on ESPN + will also not change.
Earlier this month, ESPN announced a 12-year extension to continue broadcasting Wimbledon, London’s annual tennis tournament which ended on Sunday. ESPN signed a seven-year deal with the National Hockey League in March that will give ESPN + subscribers exclusive access to 75 games per year. He also renewed his Monday Night Football carriage contract for 11 years, giving ESPN the right to broadcast all games on ESPN +.
Disney adds value to ESPN + with each new rights agreement as the entertainment world moves to video streaming. Disney charges ESPN over $ 9 per month for every cable subscriber. As more people cut cable TV, Disney would ultimately like to ensure that ESPN watchers become ESPN + customers. Even at $ 6.99 per month, Disney is losing money for every subscriber who cuts the cable for ESPN +. That doesn’t even take into account the loss of TV commercial revenue compared to cheaper digital advertising. As ESPN + moves closer to airing the same live events available on ESPN, Disney will likely continue to raise the price.
By keeping the same price for its “Disney bundle”, Disney is emphasizing the value of subscribing to its three streaming services. This could boost Disney + subscribers, who have passed 100 million but are not yet close to Netflix’s 208 million.
Disney said ESPN + had 13.8 million subscribers in May and received an average revenue per user of $ 4.55 per month.
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