# ESPN

6 Hacker News commenters recommended ESPN and 6 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 5 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** People recommend it for live sports and video that rarely shows artifacts. Critics say some games sit on other channels and ads and price rises keep coming.

## Why people recommend it

- Live sports worth paying for (1 comments): "live sports, which are the only thing left worth paying for" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46157203))
- Video rarely shows artifacts (1 comments): "they usually have sufficient bitrate that I rarely notice video artifacts" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49835240))

## What people warn about

- Games split across other channels (2 comments): "to watch what I want, I need to subscribe to flowrestling, ESPN, B1G, and BTN" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46167917)) "I pay for ESPN but some games are on TNT, NHL Network, or a broadcast channel" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47694606))
- Too many ads and price rises (2 comments): "Disney/ESPN failed to send out a reminder email that the price was increasing." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50210354)) "companies like Disney (ESPN) ruin one sport after another with too many ads" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50210706))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [YouTube Premium](https://hackerapproved.com/p/youtube-premium.md): 197 recommend
- [Netflix](https://hackerapproved.com/p/netflix.md): 181 recommend
- [Nebula](https://hackerapproved.com/p/nebula.md): 58 recommend
- [HBO](https://hackerapproved.com/p/hbo.md): 32 recommend
- [Amazon Prime Video](https://hackerapproved.com/p/amazon-prime-video.md): 29 recommend

## Where to get it

- [Visit the official site](https://www.espn.com/)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "ESPN", https://hackerapproved.com/p/espn/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).