ESPN+ was already an insane deal, now it has the Bundesliga

[ad_1]

Right now, if you want to watch every Bundesliga match in the US, you have to pay a lot for it. Fox Sports currently has the rights to the German league and the network typically broadcasts a handful of games spread across Friday, Saturday and Sunday each week. These are usually shared among Fox proper, FS1 and FS2, so you need cable or a live TV subscription (YouTube TV, etc) in order to watch almost all of them. Even then, you wouldn’t have access to every Bundesliga match that week. For that luxury, you’d have to pay $20 a month for the Fox Soccer Match Pass.

ESPN+

I love watching German soccer, and the only reason I don’t have Match Pass is the price. Too rich for my blood. And while you do get access to Bundesliga 2 (which ESPN will also show), some MLS (ESPN does that too) and US Men’s National Team matches that aren’t otherwise on TV, that’s still a lot of money to shell out monthly for essentially comprehensive coverage of one league. It’s way too early in the process, but Fox Sports will either have to replace the Bundesliga with something else or drastically reduce the price of Match Pass to keep people interested.

I’ve said this before, but ESPN+ is truly an amazing deal at $5 a month. And not just for soccer either. The streaming service has a range of live events, including MLB, NHL, UFC and a ton of college games across a range of sports. It also offers a solid library of ESPN’s scripted and studio/analysis content as well — if you’re into that sort of thing.

In terms of soccer, ESPN+ was already home to a large slate of MLS games that aren’t shown on ESPN/ESPN2 or Fox/FS1. The service also has some or all rights to Serie A (Italian league), the EFL Championship (English second division), Liga MX (Mexico), Superliga (Denmark), Eredivisie (Netherlands) and Allsvenskan (Sweden) matches. Even if every game from a league isn’t in the app, that’s still a metric ton of soccer to choose from each week, and well worth the asking price.

[ad_2]

Source link