Source: Shift Delete Net
Reports from this week suggest how Disney Inc is planning to raise the price of plans for its ESPN+ segment one more time. From August 23rd, one of the monthly subscriptions plans is set to increase $10 from $7, signifying a rise of about 43%. Along with it, the annual subscription option would go up to $100 from $70 from next month.
Evidently, this prominent increase in prices come at the juncture when the cost for various commodities and services are witnessing a rather steep rise. Moreover, it is significantly much bigger rise from the last time ESPN+ increased its price. In August 2020, the monthly plan cost had gone up by $1, following another increase in 2021. At the time of its debut in 2019, ESPN+ was priced at just $5 a month, which even looked like an attractive deal to subscribers.
A spokesperson from ESPN gave a statement regarding the latest plans for the price increase. He stated how this ‘significant change’ in price reflects the clearly increased ‘scope, scale, and value’ of the streaming service. He added how this was the platform goes on ‘significantly’ adding to original programmes, and live sports alike.
Moreover, he noted how the updated is relevant to ‘an established plan’ to make sure that the business continues to be strong and generate profit. Further, they said how when one looks into the spectrum of the platform, it would maintain its reputation to be ‘the best value.’
“…ESPN+ clearly remains the best value — in virtually all other sports streaming, you pay this price or more, and get less.”
This proves to be somewhat true owing to the prices of its competitive sports streaming services. Notably, both Bally Sports+, along with DAZN are prices at about $20 a month. Disney’s ESPN+ also has the provision of PGA Tour Live, which was priced at $10 every month when it was an independent platform. Along with it, it includes the NHL’s Center Ice that cost about $25 a month before.
Additionally, the service includes major soccer leagues, college football, the NFL, along with other sports. It also has provision of ESPN original shows, several specials, along with many docuseries. Reports note how costs of ESPN programming and production went up by 48% to $454 million in this year’s first quarter.
For the mean time, Disney is not looking to raise the price of its entire Disney Bundle. Specifically, this includes provisions of Disney+, ESPN+, along with the ad-supported tier of Hulu. Monthly, the Disney Bundle comes at a price of $14 every month. Individually, subscription to all the three platforms would come to a bill of $25 a month after this new increase of ESPN+. Moreover, they are not planning raise the price of UFC pay-per-view events on ESPN+ at the moment either.
