ESPN Jacks Up UFC PPV Price For McGregor’s Return

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UFC lowered the price of its pay-per-view (PPV) events from $64.99 to $59.99 after signing an exclusive deal with ESPN earlier this year. That’s because the ESPN+ subscription service — required for all UFC PPV events — costs $4.99 per month.

You would need to buy 12 UFC PPV events per calendar year just to break even under that new plan, which I suppose no longer matters now that UFC PPV events are going back up to $64.99, starting with UFC 246 on Jan. 18 in Las Vegas.

Which just so happens to feature the return of former lightweight champion, Conor McGregor.

I’m sure the timing is purely coincidental, though in completed unrelated news, I will remind you that “Notorious” is the biggest PPV draw in the history of UFC and holds four of the top five records in PPV buys, including the No. 1 spot.

“This price change represents a return to the price that UFC fans traditionally paid, prior to ESPN+ decreasing the PPV price for most of 2019,” a rep for ESPN told Variety.

Fans did not traditionally pay a monthly fee for the right to purchase a live event, but sure, okay.

New subscribers will be able to score the UFC 246 PPV packaged with a one-year subscription to ESPN+ for $84.98. Existing subscribers, however, will be short an extra five bucks if they want to see McGregor make his UFC return.