As WWE\u2019s Royal Rumble approaches on Saturday, the availability of ESPN Unlimited has once again come into focus, particularly for Comcast and YouTube TV, two of the largest pay-TV distributors in the country that lack access to ESPN\u2019s premium tier.<\/p>\n
Comcast Xfinity customers who receive ESPN as part of their subscription will gain access to ESPN Unlimited \u201cin the coming weeks,\u201d a company rep confirmed to Awful Announcing. Unfortunately, that means Xfinity subscribers will still need to find alternative means to watch Saturday\u2019s Royal Rumble, but that shouldn\u2019t be an issue for very much longer.<\/p>\n
A YouTube TV rep did not respond to several requests for comment regarding the company\u2019s timeline for ESPN Unlimited access.<\/p>\n
Awful Announcing previously reported<\/a> that the delays were centered on tech issues inherent to authenticating tens of millions of new users onto the platform. A source familiar with the ongoing effort tells Awful Announcing that the work on ESPN\u2019s end is ready, and the network now awaits Comcast and YouTube TV to complete their ends of the process.<\/p>\n For Comcast, that timeline can now be measured in weeks, while YouTube TV\u2019s timeline remains unknown.<\/p>\n ESPN Unlimited is the all-inclusive tier of the new ESPN app<\/a>, which launched last August. It\u2019s designed to provide customers \u201cAll of ESPN. All in one place,\u201d per the promotional campaign the network rolled out alongside the app. So far, however, ESPN Unlimited has been, well, rather limited.<\/p>\n Prior to launch, the all-in-one app had its sights set on being available to every person who subscribes to ESPN, no matter how they did so. If you got ESPN through a traditional cable or satellite bundle, wonderful. You\u2019d get ESPN Unlimited access as well. If you received ESPN through a virtual alternative, like YouTube TV, you\u2019d also get ESPN Unlimited. Or, you could bypass cable, satellite, or virtual pay TV bundles entirely and simply pay ESPN directly for access to the Unlimited tier.<\/p>\n No matter how one receives ESPN Unlimited, the idea is that the customer will have access to everything ESPN offers: the linear channels, the live content previously exclusive to ESPN+, its library of original programming, and much more.<\/p>\n That hasn\u2019t been the case so far for a wide swath of customers<\/a> receiving ESPN through their pay TV bundles.<\/p>\n Currently, Comcast\u2019s Xfinity subscribers cannot access ESPN\u2019s Unlimited tier. The same can be said for YouTube TV subscribers. Combined, those two services account for nearly 25 million pay TV subscribers, which accounts for about 40% of all pay TV households in the United States. Both companies have recently reached long-term carriage agreements<\/a> with ESPN that include ESPN Unlimited access for their subscribers, but technical hurdles have delayed access for months.<\/p>\n That means, despite these subscribers already paying for ESPN through their bundle subscriptions, they are unable to access content exclusive to the ESPN Unlimited tier as promised. As such, subscribers are left with no choice but to either forego the content exclusive to Unlimited or pay $30 per month to ESPN directly, even though ESPN Unlimited content should already be included in their pay TV bundles.<\/p>\n