How Much Will ESPN’s Standalone Streaming Service Cost? Will It Really Be Worth It for Sports Fans?
For nearly a year, Disney and ESPN executives have been talking about an eventual — yet still nebulously timed — streaming package that allows sports fans to watch all of ESPN’s programming, including studio shows, documentaries, and (most importantly) live games without having to subscribe to cable, satellite, or a live TV streaming service. Earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal reported that the self-proclaimed worldwide leader in sports is beginning to put the pieces in place to turn the plan from an eventuality into a reality.
While at first, this would seem like a huge victory for TV viewers who are singularly interested in sports, when you start to consider what the price tag might be, the value of such a service becomes a little bit more of a question. While ESPN’s offerings are expansive and cover far more sports, leagues, and competitions than any other network or platform in the country, they are far from complete. This would mean that even if sports fans cut the cord in favor of ESPN’s complete streaming option, they will need to make other arrangements to watch the games covered by channels that they would be giving up if they were to say goodbye to cable.
How Much Will ESPN’s Standalone Streaming Service Cost?
There are a lot of factors that would go into figuring out the answer to this question. So, we will attempt to break down such factors as what other sports-focused streaming services cost, what other services fans will need to watch the sports they love, the impact of cable carriage fees, and more.
What Do Other Sports Service Prices Tell Us About What a Full Streaming ESPN Could Cost?
At this point, ESPN hasn’t even confirmed that they are actively moving forward with a plan to launch a streaming package that unites all of its content, let alone what it would cost, but there are some benchmarks from around the streaming world that should give us some idea as to what the price range will be.
The company’s current streaming platform ESPN+ runs $9.99 per month on its own, but it can be purchased at a discount as part of the Disney Bundle alongside Disney+ and Hulu. Thanks to the bundling options available, ESPN+ currently has a reported subscriber base of 25.3 million customers, having shown steady growth quarter over quarter. However, other sports-focused direct-to-consumer (DTC) products are even more expensive, despite not being nearly as large.
Bally Sports+, which allows sports fans to watch the regional sports networks (RSNs) from their home market without signing up for cable, costs $19.99 monthly. The setup for this service is similar to what ESPN would be doing in that it is providing a streaming option for channels that are normally reserved for cable and other pay-TV customers. However, Bally Sports+ — and other RSN DTC services — only offer access to the games of one or two teams at a time, while the ESPN family of networks broadcast dozens of live events on a weekly basis, including playoff and championship contests as well.
Therefore, it would stand to reason that $29.99 per month would be the absolute bare minimum that a standalone ESPN streaming service would cost. However, given some of the other financial factors discussed below, it could end up being much higher.
How Will Carriage Fees Impact the Price of a Standalone ESPN Streaming Service?
While the prices of competitors will undoubtedly play a factor in the pricing of ESPN’s eventual all-inclusive streaming package, perhaps the more important financial consideration will be how it will be impacted by carriage fees. Currently, ESPN is able to charge the most money per person of any network, because of how valuable it is to cable, satellite, and live streaming services. A survey last year indicated that 78% of American adults said that ESPN was a “must-have” channel for them to keep a traditional pay-TV package.
Because of that, the ESPN family of networks is able to command over $9 for every person who has access to its channels as part of their TV package, whether they watch the channels or not. If Disney gives its most ardent fans an option to exit the cable experience and still watch ESPN programming, that will significantly damage the value that the channels have for cable companies, undoubtedly lowering what they are willing to pay in carriage fees.
This would also upset the money-making formula for the network, as currently cable subscribers who don’t watch ESPN subsidize the cost for those that do. Therefore, when Disney pivots to a model in which the only people paying are the ones who want the content, the price will inevitably increase.
Currently, there are roughly 65 million people in the United States with a pay-TV subscription. So, with a $9.42 average carriage fee, ESPN is making approximately $612.3 million per month. If a DTC offering ultimately leads to lower carriage fees, the streaming product will need to make up the difference, driving up the cost for the die-hard sports fans.
So What Will the ESPN Full-Service Streaming Platform Cost Per Month?
Considering all of the complicated, interlocking factors laid out above, The Streamable’s current prediction as to the price for an all-encompassing ESPN streaming service is $44.99 per month. However, given that there is no timetable as to when it would be released, that price could climb in the coming years.
When you factor in the streaming services that fans would also need to have just to maintain access to the games that they would otherwise have access to via cable or satellite, that price increases significantly to the point where it might not be worth cutting the cord after all. Depending on the sports and teams that they want to watch, viewers might need some combination of Bally Sports+, Max, MLS Season Pass, NFL Sunday Ticket, Paramount+, and Peacock, not to mention Apple TV+, MLB.TV, NBA League Pass, NFL+, Prime Video, and others to stream all of the games that they want to see.
ESPN+
ESPN+ is a live TV streaming service that gives access to thousands of live sporting events including NFL, MLB, NHL, UFC, College Football, F1, Bundesliga, PGA Tour, La Liga, and more. Users can see sports documentaries and select archived events. Subscribers can access exclusive articles from top ESPN insiders.