ESPN+ costs $10.99 / month. But is it worth it? I’ve been testing the service extensively and the answer is… it depends. ESPN+ is definitely worth the price for some sports fans, but it’s not a silver bullet for all of us.
Get ESPN+ If You Love NHL, UFC, or College Sports
The best thing about ESPN+ is the brilliant NHL Power Play package. Hockey fans can access 50+ exclusive games and 1,000+ out-of-market matchups per season. A great perk is the ability to choose which team’s broadcast you can hear.
Beyond the games and highlights, you can access NHL specials and hockey films like “Of Miracles and Men” (about the Lake Placid U.S. Men’s Olympic Hockey Team), “Kings Ransom” (about Wayne Gretzky’s defection to L.A.), and “Saving Sakic” (about the flurry of activity to keep the former Avalanche captain from going to the Rangers).
For UFC fans, ESPN+ is your ticket to all the major pay-per-view fights. You have to pay extra for the PPV events, but there’s plenty of MMA available beyond those. You’ll find a strong lineup of fights from UFC and PFL, but there are also programs like “Good Guy/Bad Guy,” “Dana White’s Contender Series,” and the archival series “UFC: The Beginning.”
While most marquee college sports are broadcast on linear TV on channels like ABC, CBS, ESPN, Fox, and FS1, ESPN+ really excels at smaller events. It’s especially valuable if you want to watch sports from smaller universities. You can see college football, basketball, baseball, softball, volleyball, gymnastics, cross country, wrestling, field hockey, water polo, and more from 20 conferences across the country.
ESPN+ Sports Lineup
Here’s a closer look at the sports you can access with ESPN+. Subscribers can see 32,000+ live events every year.
- UFC Fight Nights
- Exclusive UFC Pay-Per-View events
- NHL Power Play out-of-market package
- College sports
- LaLiga
- Bundesliga
- FA Cup
- Copa Del Rey
- EFL Championship
- Carabao Cup
- 4,300+ live, exclusive hours of golf coverage across 35 tournaments on PGA TOUR LIVE
- Masters and PGA Championship coverage
- Top Rank Boxing
- Grand Slam tennis
- Major League Baseball
- International cricket
- 25,000+ hours of women’s sports
Skip ESPN+ If You Need NFL, MLB, or NBA
For the major sports leagues beyond NHL, ESPN+ probably isn’t worth the price. In 2024, ESPN+ simulcasts some Monday Night Football games and it has one exclusive game, but most NFL fans like me want a service with every game.
MLB fans will also want a live service to catch games on channels like ESPN, Fox, FS1, and TBS.
NBA fans will be left in the lurch without those matchups on ABC, ESPN, and TNT.
Big-time college sports like men’s basketball and NCAA football are better served by linear channels as well.
ESPN+ also doesn’t offer the key regional sports networks or regional streamers needed to follow in-market MLB, NHL, or NBA teams. You’d still need MLB.TV, NBA League Pass, and NFL Sunday Ticket to follow those leagues’ out-of-market games.
Get a Better Deal With a Bundle
As a standalone value, ESPN+ may be questionable. But as part of a bundle, it feels like a great perk.
The Disney Bundle
The most straightforward option is the Disney Bundle, which gives you ESPN+, Disney+, and Hulu on-demand for as little as $16.99. As a combined package, this is a legitimately good value, since it saves $14/month compared to the standalone prices. You can also choose the ad-free version of the bundle for $26.99 - that saves you $19/month.
The Linear Bundle with Hulu Live TV
If you want the best savings available, change your TV provider to Hulu Live TV. Not only do you get all the broadcast networks and important sports cable channels, you’ll also get a handful of regional sports networks. Hulu Live TV also includes the Disney Bundle for free! That means you pay nothing extra for ESPN+. Enjoy family entertainment with Disney+ and familiar TV favorites with Hulu. It’s the best value in streaming if you love sports and general entertainment.
Wait for the ESPN Flagship Streamer
If you’re on the fence about ESPN+ and you don’t want a bundle, you could wait until next year when ESPN will launch a new flagship streamer. Sometime in the fall of 2025, the new service will feature all the programming from ESPN and all the ESPN+ sports as well. The price for that service could be higher than we’d like, but it would pack more sports into a unified platform.
A bigger threat would be the possibility that the company kills off ESPN+ and forces everyone to buy the new, more expensive flagship streamer. Such a move wouldn’t happen for a few years, I assume. Just something to keep in mind.
The Bottom Line
The holy grail for sports fans would be one streamer that offers every game. That will never happen. ESPN’s attempt to pull together the sports mega-streamer Venu Sports seems to have fallen apart. Even if the service were able to launch, it would still have huge gaps in coverage. For now, ESPN+ is not a must-have service unless you love one of the sports on its roster.
If you love sports, it’s absolutely worth trying ESPN+ to see if it’s a good fit. If you need a new TV provider, give Hulu Live TV a try so you can enjoy ESPN+ free for 3 days. I’d strongly recommend doing the Hulu Live TV package or the Disney Bundle to offset the cost of ESPN+. As a standalone option, it’s probably too expensive for casual fans.
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.