The American multinational cable sports channel ESPN is the go-to channel for all sports lovers. Here viewers can watch their favorite matches in high resolution, get real-time sports updates and news on its website or mobile application. The company also provides subscription offers to users to enjoy more features. Currently, there are millions of ESPN plus subscribers who had paid $49.99 this year to enjoy online streaming of important matches, with several other features.
However, the media giant has announced to raise its annual subscription charges by $10, i.e., from $49.99 to $59.99. ESPN increased the monthly subscription rates to $5.99 earlier this year and is doing the same for annual charges. The new subscribers will have to pay $59.99 in order to get the subscription for the year 2021 whereas, the existing subscribers will get the new prices by March 2021.
Due to the immense use of streaming applications in 2020, many companies have raised their subscription charges. For example, YouTube TV and Fubo increased the rates, Hulu Live TV prices were changed as well, even Netflix added $1 to its most popular and widely opted streaming plan.
ESPN will also change the pricing for its Plus’ UFC pay-per-view events in January. Users have to pay $64.99 per match; however, after January 8th, the charges will be $69.99. Since the UFC pay-per-view matches are ESPN Plus’ exclusive in the USA, the price change will affect many viewers.
The bumping of subscription rates of streaming services is very unusual. ESPN Plus is bringing more exclusives for its users in the coming year; however, the company's biggest target is to get streaming rights to Southeastern Conference football (SEC) so that SEC games are also brought to the streaming services in the year ahead.
The price increase of ESPN is susceptible to damage the number of subscribers the firm has right now. Let’s see if the changes will keep the user stick to the platform or force them to leave.
