If it’s Friday, it’s a good time for a streaming service to announce a price hike. Today it’s ESPN+, and this one’s gonna hurt.
According to Variety, Disney-owned ESPN+ will boost its monthly price to $9.99, a hefty $3-per-month increase, while annual subscriptions will increase to $99.99, up from the current annual rate of $66.99. The ESPN+ price hike will go into effect starting August 23, Variety reports.
The last time ESPN+ raised its price was July 2021, hiking the monthly rate from $5.99 to $6.99 a month. This time, the ESPN+ price hike is a heck of a lot steeper.
That’s the bad news; the good news is that the price of the ESPN+, Disney+, and Hulu bundle (a.k.a., the “Disney Bundle”) will remain unchanged–for now, Variety says–at $13.99 a month, or $19.99 a month if you opt for the ad-free version of Hulu.
Disney has been steadily raising the prices of its various streaming services. Disney+ subscribers saw their monthly rates go up to $8 a month last March, a $1-per-month increase, while Hulu boosted its monthly price by a buck last October, bringing the monthly rate of ad-supported Hulu to $6.99 while ad-free Hulu rose to $12.99 a month.
Meanwhile, the price of Hulu + Live TV went up to $69.99 a month back in December, a $5-per-month increase that also gave subscribers access to Disney+ and ESPN+, whether they wanted those services or not.
The size of the ESPN+ price increase is certainly an eyebrow-raiser, but perhaps Disney is trying to steer sports fans to one of its bundles.
Now that ESPN+ will soon cost $9.99 a month, the $13.99/month price of the Disney Bundle with ESPN+, Disney+, and Hulu with ads looks like a relative bargain.
Author: Ben Patterson, Senior Writer, TechHive
Ben has been writing about technology and consumer electronics for more than 20 years. A PCWorld contributor since 2014, Ben joined TechHive in 2019, where he has covered everything from smart speakers and soundbars to smart lights and security cameras. Ben's articles have also appeared in PC Magazine, TIME, Wired, CNET, Men's Fitness, Mobile Magazine, and more. Ben holds a master's degree in English literature.