Disney raises ESPN Plus subscription price again

Disney increases monthly and annual fees for ESPN More starting August 13, marking the second price increase the service will undergo in the first seven months of 2021 only.

Starting next month, the cost of a monthly ESPN Plus subscription will drop from $ 5.99 to $ 6.99, while an annual subscription will now cost you $ 69.99, down from $ 59.99. At the end of 2020, for reference, an annual ESPN Plus subscription was only $ 49.99, which means the price of the service has jumped $ 20 in less than a year.

ESPN Plus is one of three different subscription streaming services that Disney operates in the United States, alongside Disney + and Hulu. When combined, the three services are usually grouped together under the name of the Disney package, a subscription contract that costs $ 13.99 per month, which is 30% less than the cost of individual subscriptions to each of the three services ( in particular, the monthly cost of this subscription to the package will not change).

In a move that foreshadowed the upcoming price hike, Disney recently announced new sports rights maneuvers that would unlock a revamped list of stock footage that would be available exclusively on ESPN’s streaming platform, including 75 NHL matches and live broadcast rights to tennis from Wimbledon. tournament which would include full reruns for all matches. According to Variety, the England Lawn Tennis Club has also agreed to relinquish the rights to certain movies, classic games and highlights, and a separate agreement would also make ESPN Plus the exclusive destination for anyone wishing to watch the PGA Tour Live starting next season.

The move to increase the price of ESPN Plus appears designed to trick subscribers to simply spit out for the package subscription already in a move that would see Disney translating an already sizable subscriber base into two more. Back in April, Disney announced that ESPN Plus alone had just under 14 million subscribers – a number the company surely looks forward to spreading in streaming issues of Disney + and Hulu.