ESPN is coming to Disney+ in Australia soon. Will that mean yet another price increase?

The battle for streaming has well and truly pivoted to sport. Apple TV has the American soccer and baseball. Netflix set records with its broadcast of the Mike Tyson vs Logan Paul boxing match, and also has the WWE now. Amazon Prime Video has cricket and Stan has its own sports channel with access to Rugby, Tennis and more.

And that's not even focused on dedicated sports offerings like KAYO and DAZN (who also happens to be buying Foxtel).

So it's no surprise that Disney+ is pushing into sports in a more global fashion, launching ESPN on Disney+ in Australia in the coming months.

Australia isn't the first market to get ESPN programming – Disney launched it in Latin America in the middle of last year, and in the US in December – though Australia and New Zealand are the first English speaking markets outside North America to get it.

Disney says that the launch of ESPN will add 10,000 hours of ESPN live sports action to the platform via live ESPN and ESPN2 channels. There will also be studio shows like SportsCenter and NBA Today.

“We’re excited to bring ESPN to Disney+ for sports fans across our sports-loving nations. Sport on Disney+ is an innovative game-changer. It further enriches our already strong and unique content offering, boosts value for subscribers, and serves sports fans anytime, anywhere.

“Disney+ will provide access to the biggest ESPN offering ever delivered in our market, including live games and on-demand replays. ESPN’s unrivalled coverage of massive global sporting events and dedicated local programming adds to the wide array of entertainment already available on Disney+ for audiences of all ages.”

– Kylie Watson-Wheeler, Head of ESPN Asia-Pacific

The new ESPN channels will be available to all Australian Disney+ subscribers in the coming months.

That sounds like Disney isn't planning on increasing the cost of plans to coincide with the launch of the sports content.

But given Disney has jacked up prices pretty much every year or two since it launched, it's hard to believe that the addition of thousands of hours of sport won't impact pricing in some way. Maybe not immediately, but it is inevitable.

Here's my Disney+ price history since I signed up at launch:

November 2019: $89.99
November 2020: $89.99
November 2021: $119.99
November 2022: $119.99
November 2023: $139.99
November 2024: $179.99

Prices have more than doubled in six years. and while there has been some solid content added in that time, there's also been a lot of disappointment. The platform certainly hasn't doubled in terms of my perceived value.

Any further price increase is going to be extremely hard to justify in my household budget, especially if its to cover costs of adding 10,000 hours of sports content I will never, ever watch.