ESPN Unlimited, the sports network’s year-old streaming service, is getting more expensive starting Sept. 17, when its monthly and annual rates rise for the first time since launch.
“From the beginning, we set out to provide sports fans with optionality and a new way to connect with ESPN,” said Jimmy Pitaro, Chairman of ESPN, in an Aug. 20 memo marking the platform’s first anniversary.
The increases aren’t dramatic, but they add up. ESPN Unlimited climbs from $29.99 to $31.99 a month, and from $299.99 to $319.99 a year, while the smaller ESPN Select tier — a streamlined package that replaced ESPN+ — rises from $12.99 to $13.99 monthly and $129.99 to $139.99 annually.
Subscribers who bundle ESPN Unlimited with Disney+ and Hulu won’t feel a thing. That three-service bundle, which roughly four out of five ESPN Unlimited subscribers already use, holds steady at $36 a month, at least for now.
Timing matters here, too. The new prices land just as football season kicks off, with the NFL, college football, the US Open, LaLiga soccer and ESPN’s first-ever Super Bowl broadcast all headed to the platform in the months ahead.
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ESPN Unlimited launched in August 2025. Movieguide® covered its debut back when it was still known internally as “ESPN Flagship” and The Walt Disney Company’s Chief Executive Officer, Bob Iger, described it as central to growing Disney’s direct-to-consumer business after ESPN+ had shed subscribers.
The platform bundles ESPN’s linear channels — including ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNews, ESPN Deportes, the SEC Network and the ACC Network — with more than 47,000 live events a year, a personalized SportsCenter feed and a vertical-video feature called Verts. ESPN Select, the lighter tier, offers roughly 32,000 events without those linear channels.
None of this touches cable and satellite subscribers. Comcast Xfinity and YouTube TV customers still get ESPN Unlimited bundled into their existing packages at no extra charge, a perk ESPN has extended through authentication deals with most major pay-TV distributors.
Other bundles are murkier for now. ESPN Unlimited packaged with Fox One or NFL+ Premium currently runs $39.99 a month, and none of this week’s reporting has clarified whether those combination prices will move along with everything else.
This is hardly an isolated move. Movieguide® reported on Peacock’s fourth price hike in four years just last week — its fourth increase since 2022, pushing the base plan to $12.99 a month — and streaming costs across the industry have climbed steadily enough that Movieguide® has repeatedly urged families to audit their subscriptions rather than let them auto-renew indefinitely.
A couple of extra dollars a month won’t break most family budgets. But “free with your cable package” and “unlimited” streaming both carry a price tag somewhere down the line, and September is as good a month as any for families to double-check what everyone in the house is actually paying for.
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