ESPN has recently teamed up with Fox One to offer sports fans a more convenient and cost-effective way of watching their favorite games. For just $39.99 a month, a 20% discount compared to $49.98 for both services separately, one can now access ESPN’s direct-to-consumer tier and Fox One as a bundle. This service brings together the two most important rights portfolios in American sports on a regular basis.
This offer is available through a single app, ESPN Unlimited, which offers access to all ESPN channels and services, including ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNEWS, and more. Independently, ESPN Unlimited costs $29.99 per month.
Separately, Fox One is Fox’s all-in portfolio app featuring Fox content, Fox Sports material, Fox News, and others, including FOX, FS1, FS2, and Big Ten Network. By itself, Fox One is $19.99 a month. With 24/7 access, the firms declare, the bundle would unlock over 50,000 live events and more than 100,000 hours of live event broadcasting every year. If you register through ESPN, you’ll be prompted to connect Fox One right away and receive an email for hassle-free access.
What the ESPN Unlimited and Fox One bundle includes
On the ESPN side, you get Monday Night Football, the NBA and WNBA, the NHL, SEC and ACC college football, and two months’ worth of college hoops annually, among other properties. ESPN+, often undervalued, layers on extra out-of-market and niche sports, studio shows, and original series. Fox One nets you the NFL’s NFC package on Sundays, Big Ten college football via its sister BTN channel, MLB’s crown jewels including the last step of the postseason but not the NLCS, and major soccer events that fall under the company’s rights as a top-tier television provider. It also gets you a solid amount of racing and college sports.
What you get with ESPN Unlimited
- Access to ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNEWS, and more
- Monday Night Football
- NBA and WNBA coverage
- NHL coverage
- SEC and ACC college football
- Two months of college basketball annually
- ESPN+ extras: out-of-market and niche sports, studio shows, and original series
What you get with Fox One
- NFL’s NFC package on Sundays
- Big Ten college football via BTN
- MLB postseason crown jewels (including the final round, but not the NLCS)
- Major soccer events under FOX rights
- Racing and additional college sports
How this compares to traditional live TV streaming plans
For years, the only way to combine ESPN’s live sports with Fox’s, in a cord-cutting context, was to subscribe to a virtual MVPD package that included both. That was typically a YouTube TV, Hulu + Live TV, or Fubo offering that costs somewhere in the range of $80 to $90 before add-ons. The ESPN–Fox One bundle at $39.99 cuts that in half, focusing instead on what most fans want most: national games and major tentpole events.
The catch, of course, is that this isn’t a replacement for those full channel-replication services; it doesn’t offer the regional sports networks that cover Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League, or the National Basketball Association outside of holiday specials or exclusives. Sports have long been spoken of in industry reports as the final adhesive desperately clinging to the fraying sweater of live TV together; year after year, Nielsen’s top-ranked shows are more than half filled with live games, not just sports; and firms like Leichtman Research Group have emphasized the ever-increasing average subscriber bills for cable and live TV streaming. In the context of both demand spectacle and cost squeeze, a focused $39.99 sports-first entrée is a standout option.
Who should consider this bundle and how to optimize it
The overlap is by design. Everything is covered between those two: most national NFL windows, college football Saturday, NBA and NHL on ESPN, and MLB’s postseason, in a lineup that may not require a cable subscription.
Who should consider it: This package is tailored for fans more readily accustomed to national schedules than individual teams’ broadcasts. If you build your weekends around college football, your weeknights around ESPN’s version of the NBA or NHL, and your Sundays around the NFL’s national windows, that checks out.
Should you want to pare the costs down from a full live TV package, a future-facing option is to pair this with an antenna for ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX reception where the signal is robust. Frequently, that will capture much of the rest of your real-life essentials at a sliver of the price.
Activation, supported devices, pricing, and fine print
By subscribing through ESPN, a link to activate Fox One is shown on the confirmation screen and sent via email, with billing handled by ESPN for both services. Expect the occasional blackout because, as a sports package, local league and location rules may apply.
On the device side, support will track channels’ existing app ecosystems, while account controls, profiles, parental settings, and such are managed within the respective app portals for the two.
Pricing is monthly and subject to change, but the sticker is $39.99 for today—a shockingly low price—with a free trial available.
A simpler, lower-cost path to national sports coverage
In a marketplace where consumers are required to sign in with a multitude of logins and costs are getting higher and more burdensome, bundling ESPN Unlimited and Fox One is a down-to-earth choice. And for most sports devotees, it’s the most straightforward approach to taking part in the game, and it costs nearly 50% less than a standard live TV streamer.