ESPN Plus has officially been rebranded as ESPN Select and that also comes along with a price increase that affects UFC fans for the remainder of the company’s broadcast deal through the end of 2025.
On
Tuesday, Disney announced price increases to many of the company’s streaming services including Disney Plus, Hulu and ESPN Select, along with bundle packages going up in price as well.
Starting on Oct. 21, ESPN Select changes from $11.99 per month to $12.99 per month with the annual plan changing from $119.99 to $129.99. Programming from ESPN Select can also be viewed through the new ESPN Unlimited streaming service that costs $29.99 per month or $299.99 per year.
Package deals are also changing with the current bundle of Disney Plus, Hulu and ESPN Select with ads changing from $16.99 to $19.99 per month starting Oct. 21. The same bundled plan without ads is changing from $26.99 to $29.99.
The price increases come as ESPN is about to part ways with the UFC after the promotion inked a massive $7.7 billion deal to move to Paramount for the next seven years. As part of the deal, the UFC is moving away from the pay-per-view format for the promotion’s biggest events and instead those cards are airing live to Paramount Plus subscribers at no extra cost.
Paramount Plus currently costs $7.99 per month with ads or $12.99 per month without ads. While company hasn’t announced any plans to change those prices, it seems likely that an increase could happen in the future, especially after the UFC’s broadcast deal kicks off in 2026.
ESPN has steadily increased prices year after year since first launching its own streaming service. The price increases also included changes to the UFC’s pay-per-view model where events once cost $59.99 and now run $79.99.
UFC executives believe the significant increase in prices played at least some part in piracy issues the company faced for some of the biggest events.
“ESPN and Disney were very aggressive, if you will, on pricing the pay-per-views and they have full control over that, but they have control given what they’re paying us for those rights,” TKO Group Holdings president and CEO Mark Shapiro said back in 2024. “Over the period of our partnership, they probably went a little quicker and a little higher than we would have liked.”
As of now, the UFC has four more pay-per-views on the books with ESPN before the promotion officially moves to Paramount.
