{"id":580465,"date":"2026-04-12T21:45:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T21:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/580465\/"},"modified":"2026-04-12T21:45:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T21:45:09","slug":"nfl-network-expected-to-be-on-espn-unlimited-by-2026-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/580465\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL Network expected to be on ESPN Unlimited by 2026 season"},"content":{"rendered":"

ESPN formally acquired NFL Network on April 1 as part of an equity deal with the NFL, which was approved earlier this year.<\/p>\n

As a result, NFL Network was expected to be included in ESPN\u2019s direct-to-consumer offering, ESPN Unlimited. ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro confirmed as much in an interview with CNBC in February<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things that we are very focused on is taking friction out of the sports fan experience,\u201d Pitaro said. \u201cNFL Network will be included in the ESPN app and will be included as a part of the ESPN Unlimited tier, which is available for $29.99 per month. In other words, there will not be an upsell for NFL Network.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was good news for fans, who would be able to access all of the ESPN networks and NFL Network in one place at no additional cost.<\/p>\n

However, two weeks in, ESPN Unlimited subscribers still don\u2019t currently have access to NFLN.<\/p>\n

Turns out, it\u2019s just gonna take a little bit longer to integrate.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s according to Puck\u2019s John Ourand, via The Varsity newsletter<\/a>, who reports that ESPN \u201cexpects it to be in place for the start of the 2026 season.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cExpects\u201d isn\u2019t as good as \u201cdefinitely will be,\u201d but it\u2019s something.<\/p>\n

ESPN Unlimited gives subscribers access to everything ESPN offers, including its linear channels, live content formerly available on ESPN+, and a vast library of on-demand content. It is currently priced at $29.99 per month, and will stay that way once NFL Network becomes part of the offering by the start of next football season.<\/p>\n

That said, as our Drew Lerner noted in February<\/a>, \u201cit\u2019s likely ESPN will leverage NFL Network to extract more money from pay TV operators down the line. The channel is contractually obligated to air seven games per season, and ESPN should be able to leverage that inventory, in conjunction with every other Disney-owned cable channel, to demand higher rates.\u201d<\/p>\n

Drew also noted that while adding NFL Network won\u2019t directly lead to a price increase, it seems likely that it will be factored in when ESPN Unlimited\u2019s monthly price eventually rises, as all things must.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ESPN formally acquired NFL Network on April 1 as part of an equity deal with the NFL, which…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":580466,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[88,206834,13319,92],"class_list":["post-580465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-espn-unlimited","tag-nfl-network","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}