Is the new ESPN streamer worth $30 per month?
Is the new ESPN streamer worth $30 per month?
The service may not be worth leaving cable for, and that’s likely exactly the way ESPN wants it.
After months of speculation, new details about the forthcoming ESPN streaming service are available at last. The streamer will be called ESPN, and will have all the content found on the ESPN family of linear channels. The price of $30 per month has also been revealed for the new streamer, and we’ll discuss whether or not it’s really worth the money at that cost below.
Key Details:
- Bundle and save: The new ESPN streaming service will be available at a discount as part of the Disney Bundle.
- Watch what you want: Viewers can continue to receive only the programming now available on ESPN+ for $12 per month.
- Worth cutting the cord?: ESPN doesn’t want a massive number of current viewers to leave the cable bundle for its new streamer.
Before we discuss whether ESPN’s new streamer is really worth the price, let’s lay out the various prices you can opt to pay for the service. As a standalone offering, ESPN via streaming will cost $30 per month or $300 per year. ESPN+ will be offered as a lower-cost tier of ESPN via streaming at its current $12 monthly price under the name ESPN select, should viewers decide to go that route.
Fans will also be able to get ESPN as part of the Disney Bundle. If they want to watch it with ads on Disney+ and Hulu, the bundle will cost $36 per month — $20 per month more than the bundle of ad-supported Disney+ and Hulu with ESPN+ currently costs. Going ad-free on Disney+ and Hulu while bundling with the new ESPN will cost $45 per month, an increase of $18 per month over the current ad-free Disney Trio Premium offering.
So, is it worth it to add ESPN to your rotation? If you’re a sports fan who already signs up for the Disney Bundle, the answer will almost certainly be yes. ESPN will have a much bigger content selection than ESPN+ currently has; fans will get access to all “Monday Night Football” games, all NBA and NHL regular season games available on linear ESPN networks, more college football, and plenty of other sports that are found on ESPN on TV, but not on its streaming service at the moment.
On the other hand, if you already have a pay-TV subscription that includes ESPN, you might not see any reason to cancel it if you’re going to have to pay $30 per month to stream ESPN channels alone. That’s likely exactly the way ESPN wants it; the channel still makes a huge amount of its overall revenue from fees paid by distributors, and would likely end up losing money if all its current viewers on pay-TV plans canceled those subscriptions to stream instead. Cable providers like Charter and DIRECTV are already dealing with enough cord-cutting as it is, and are probably thankful that ESPN didn’t price its new streamer lower.
Diving a little deeper into price comparisons, Sling TV subscribers will probably want to keep their service the way it is. For just $16 per month more than they’d be asked to pay for ESPN, Sling Orange customers get other sports channels like TNT and TBS in their plan, and can switch to Sling Blue at no cost to watch NFL Network or FS1.
For subscribers to other live TV streaming services, however, the question becomes a little more difficult to answer. DIRECTV MySports customers will get the new ESPN streamer included in their $70-per-month subscription price, as well as local Fox and NBC outlets in most markets. But do they watch those and other sports channels included in the plan enough to justify paying $40 per month more than they would have to shell out just to get ESPN?
Fubo (starting at $85 per month) and YouTube TV ($83 per month) customers face similar questions. Switching to ESPN streaming only would help them save over $50 per month, the equivalent of $600 per year. But those streamers also come with a wide selection of entertainment and news-focused cable channels that ESPN via streaming will not have, and sports fans may miss out on access to regional sports networks that Fubo provides if they leave that service.
As a Disney Trio Premium bundle subscriber, I’m going to have to think hard on whether or not I want to pay an extra $18 per month to watch the new ESPN streaming offering, but I’m already leaning toward yes. Having access to more NFL, NBA, and NHL games alone is probably going to be worth the expense to me, but of course, I can’t answer for everyone. Sports fans will have until the platform launches in late summer or early fall 2025 to decide for themselves whether the price tag of the new ESPN streaming service is worth it.
ESPN Select
ESPN Select is a streaming service that replaced ESPN+ and provides access to live NHL, MLB, and MLS games, PGA Tour Golf, international sports events, ESPN original programming, and a complete archive of “30 for 30.” Find out our review of the service and how to start streaming ESPN Select.