ESPN+ rebrands to ESPN Select, raises prices again as UFC deal comes to a close

ESPN has a parting gift for MMA fans as UFC’s seven year media rights agreement concludes at the end of 2025: another price hike.

On Tuesday (Sept. 23, 2025), ESPN parent company Disney announced that ESPN+ is being rebranded to ESPN Select, and it will cost more per month than it did before. Subscribers that were paying $11.99 for the service will now pay $12.99, or they can get ESPN Select as part of ESPN Unlimited for $29.99 per month or $299.99 annually.

The price hike goes into effect on October 21st, meaning UFC fans will be paying more for the final two months of events and for the right to shell out $80 for UFC 321, UFC 322, and UFC 323.

The UFC recently announced a new seven year media rights partnership with Paramount CBS in the U.S. that will see all Fight Nights and numbered events move to Paramount+, with the pay-per-views becoming available at no extra cost for premium $12.99 subscribers.

This is after years of ESPN raising prices non-stop … when UFC first arrived on the service, it cost just $4.99 to subscribe to ESPN+ and $65 for pay-per-views. The service also had a bad habit of just ignoring your purchases and not loading events, or buffering worse than many of the random alphabet soup illegal streamers offering pirated streams for free.

To say hardcore fans are excited to escape the ESPN ecosystem would be an understatement. We’re now just waiting to see whether UFC parent company TKO sells another piece of the promotion’s media rights to Disney in an attempt to keep subscribers hooked. Contender Series, UFC Fight Pass, and Zuffa Boxing rights are still up for grabs, and there were legit reports last month that ESPN was considering buying Fight Pass outright, putting a massive chunk of MMA history behind ESPN’s rising paywalls.

2026 can’t come soon enough!