Rejoice, NBA fans: League Pass is slated to be much cheaper this upcoming season. In a recent renewal email, League Pass announced its premium service, which enables users to view games on multiple devices free of commercials, will cost $129.99. Last season, it ran folks $280. Meanwhile, a standard subscription cost $230 in 2021-22 and has been slashed to $99.99 for the 2022-23 season, according to Sportico. A monthly subscription for the standard service will cost $15.
The speculation here is League Pass aiming to compete with fellow sports streaming services, which tend to come in at drastically lower or more frugal price points than League Pass. For instance, ESPN+ is $9.99 per month or $99.99 for an entire year. ESPN+ offers NHL and MLB games, and recently became the host of PGA Tour Live.
League Pass has long been a staple for fans to access out-of-market NBA games throughout the season. But the hefty price point has certainly barred many from purchasing it. While this pay cut won’t fix everything, decreasing various subscription tiers by over 50 percent should help provide greater access for a notable sect of people who couldn’t previously afford it or justifying buying it.
Now, all that’s left is to address the constant freezing, lagging and buffering that seemingly interferes on a nightly basis with the League Pass Experience. At the very least, watching the game’s brightest stars is going to be easier for a chunk of people and that’s good for everyone involved.