ESPN+ To Raise Price Before Losing UFC Rights

ESPN is set to increase the price of its streaming service just weeks before the promotion’s UFC broadcast rights officially move to Paramount.

ESPN has announced that its streaming platform ESPN+ will rebrand as ESPN Select on October 21. This means the ad-supported monthly plan will increase from $11.99 to $12.99, while the ad-free monthly option will jump from $26.99 to $29.99. The annual plan will also see an increase from $119.99 to $129.99. The price increase is coming just as the UFC is set to begin its new, seven-year, $7.7 billion broadcast deal with Paramount and CBS on January 1. The new partnership will abandon the traditional pay-per-view model in favor of a subscription-based service on Paramount+. 

“What a great move to not just have the UFC for seven years, but to have it for free. How much does it cost a month? Ten bucks, let’s say it’s ten bucks. That’s crazy. That’s a $120 a year, you can watch every UFC pay-per-view? Two UFC pay-per-views is, like, 140 bucks, right? Isn’t it? Aren’t they, like, $70? So you get all of them. Everything’s free? That’s incredible. This sport is going to go f**king hypernova,” Joe Rogan said 

The Implications

From a consumer perspective, this is a bad move. UFC fans have had to subscribe to ESPN+ just to be able to purchase the pay-per-view events, and now, as the partnership is about to expire, the price for that base subscription is going up. 

From a business standpoint, this could be seen as a strategic, albeit risky, move. By raising prices now, ESPN is taking advantage of the remaining UFC viewership before the broadcast rights move to Paramount. This could be a way to maximize revenue from a valuable asset before it is gone. 

Furthermore, this move might be an attempt to prepare subscribers for the future of ESPN’s streaming service. As the UFC moves away, ESPN will likely look to focus on other live sports and original programming to justify its subscription cost. The price increase could be a way to communicate to consumers that the service is still a premium product, even without the UFC.