Price of ESPN+ Monthly Subscription to Increase in August

Consumers of ESPN+ will see a big increase in the price of the monthly subscription. According to Deadline, the sports streaming service will increase its monthly police to $7 to $10 a month on Aug. 23. The 43% price increase is the second one in a little more than a year for ESPN+, which now has 22.3 million subscribers. 

This move is not a big surprise due to the number of live events ESPN+ provides. Fans can watch more than 1,000 out-of-market NHL games and extended PGA Tour coverage. ESPN+ also allows fans to watch other sports live such as NFL, tennis and college sports. There are also various original series such as Peyton's Places, Man in the Arena: Tom Brady and the upcoming Derek Jeter docuseries The Captian. 

One of the big things ESPN+ provides is live UFC events, which fans pay extra to see. UFC president Dana White told MMA Junkie last year. That he's not a fan of the price increases. "We don't have any say in that," White said, per Yahoo Sports. "We gave the pay-per-views to ESPN, so yeah, that's their decision. You know how I feel about that stuff. I don't love when prices get raised, but it's not my decision. It's theirs."

ESPN+ is owned by Disney, and fans can get the streaming bundle where they can get Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ for $14 a month. If fans want to get an annual subscription to ESPN+, the price will increase from $69.99 to $99.99. ESPN+ launched in 2018 and is expected to hit 30 million subscribers by the end of fiscal 2024. But subscribers are not happy with the price increase. 

"In just over a year the price of ESPN plus has increased from 4.99 to 6.99 per month," one person said on Twitter. "Now they want to raise it even more. It's like they want me (us) to cancel subscription and watch fight nights illegally." Another Twitter user has a message for ESPN. 

"Hey [ESPN] — if you're hiking up the [ESPN+] price by 43%, you should offer discounts on the [UFC PPVs]," the person wrote. Being a UFC fan and dealing with the HUGE hikes on their monthly PPV events, while now paying more for the streaming service? NOT ideal."