Disney is zeroing in on ESPN+ to make it as profitable as possible this year. The media mogul is setting a target goal of reaching more than 15 million ESPN+ subscribers for fiscal 2021, meaning they would have to add about 5 million subscribers by the end of September.
These numbers come from a post published by Musings of Mouse’s Julia Alexander detailing the struggles ESPN+ has faced this past year. The article also reports ESPN+ is looking to double its subscriber revenue from last year regardless of how many subs are added, which could mean more potential price increases.
Disney already announced an ESPN+ price increase from $49.99 to $59.99 back in December. The company is also increasing its Disney bundle which includes ESPN+ to $13.99/month this March. Aside from that, add-ons like UFC pay-per-views have also increased by $5 to $69.99 recently.
After a very rocky year for live sports, ESPN+ is also considering paring down its offerings to eliminate niche sports, namely the X Games which ESPN has held rights to for 25 years. A report from The Information suggests Disney will continue to focus on more mainstream sports (think Monday Night Football), and let other niche sports that don’t drive subscriber sales be sold off.