ESPN and several Disney+ bundles go up Thursday. The biggest dollar jump lands on a plan you cannot buy anymore, held only by people who never switched.
Disney and ESPN raise streaming prices on Thursday, Sept. 17, across standalone plans and multiple bundles.
The steepest increase in dollar terms goes to the legacy Disney+, Hulu and ESPN Select bundle, which climbs from $24.99 to $27.99 a month.
That plan has been closed to new customers for a while. Only subscribers who signed up before Aug. 20 and never cancelled or switched still have it.
What is going up on Sept. 17?
Here are the changes.
ESPN Unlimited goes from $29.99 to $31.99 monthly. The annual plan moves from $299.99 to $319.99.
ESPN Select, formerly ESPN+, goes from $12.99 to $13.99 monthly, with the annual plan rising from $129.99 to $139.99.
The ad-supported Disney+, Hulu and ESPN Select bundle rises about $2 a month, to roughly $22. The ad-free version of that trio goes from $30 to $33.
And the legacy bundle, the one with ad-free Disney+ paired with ad-supported Hulu and ESPN Select, takes the $3 jump.
The loyalty math is the awkward part
A $3 monthly bump is $36 over a year.
That lands on the group with the longest continuous relationship with Disney’s streaming products, because that is the only group still on the plan. Leave it and you cannot come back.
Disney has not framed it that way, and there is a straightforward business explanation. Legacy plans are priced below current equivalents, and companies generally close that gap over time rather than all at once.
Still, the people paying the largest increase are the ones who stayed put the longest.
Who is not affected?
Anyone getting ESPN Unlimited through a qualifying Disney+ or Hulu bundle.
Those subscribers keep their current rate. The Unlimited increase applies to standalone customers only, which creates a split where two people with the same ESPN access pay different amounts depending on how they got there.
When does the new price show up on your bill?
Your first billing cycle on or after Sept. 17.
Disney’s plans and prices page specifies that anyone who enrolled in a bundle including ESPN Select before Aug. 20 sees the change then. So depending on your billing date, the higher charge could land as late as mid-October.
Why is Disney raising prices now?
This is the first pricing change since ESPN overhauled its direct-to-consumer strategy last year.
ESPN Unlimited launched with a heavily discounted introductory offer, which is standard for a new streaming product and standard to unwind afterward. Sports rights costs also keep climbing, and ESPN carries a lot of them.
Disney has raised streaming prices pretty much annually for several years running.
How were the new prices found?
Sports Media Watch spotted the changes on an ESPN support page, and coverage followed from there. Disney’s own help documentation carried the details before any press release did.
That is a common pattern with price changes, and it is why the increases tend to surface three or four weeks ahead rather than being promoted.
For anyone on the legacy bundle doing the math this week, the comparison worth running is $27.99 against the current ad-supported trio at roughly $22. The gap is about $6 a month, and the difference is ads on Disney+.
Whether that is worth $72 a year is the actual decision in front of longtime subscribers, and Thursday is when it stops being hypothetical.
Article compiled with the help of the Pirates & Princesses newsroom.
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Hat Tips:
Sports Media Watch, first spotting the changes on an ESPN support page
9to5Mac (Aug. 24, 2026), the full bundle pricing breakdown and the note that ESPN Unlimited bundles are unaffected
What’s On Disney Plus (August 2026), the ESPN Unlimited and Select monthly and annual figures
WDW News Today (August 2026), the legacy bundle terms and the Aug. 20 enrollment cutoff
Cord Cutters News (August 2026), the billing cycle timing and the legacy plan eligibility rules
iTech Post (Aug. 24, 2026), the split between standalone and bundled ESPN Unlimited pricing
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