Subscribers to a YouTube TV package that includes ESPN now have the option of activating their free ESPN Unlimited subscription. Up until last week, YouTube TV remained one of the main live TV providers that had yet to support ESPN Unlimited activation.
What You Need to Know
- YouTube TV subscribers who get ESPN can now activate ESPN Unlimited.
- After linking YouTube TV and ESPN accounts, subscribers can use the ESPN app to stream the included ESPN Unlimited content.
- The new support ends a long delay compared to other major live TV providers, including DirecTV, Fubo, and Hulu Live TV.
For YouTube TV subscribers that have been waiting for ESPN Unlimited, that time has now come. As detailed in a recently updated ESPN help post, YouTube TV is now an officially supported live TV provider.
How to Activate Your Free ESPN Unlimited Subscription
For those now interested in activating their free ESPN Unlimited subscription, here are the official steps:
- Navigate to YouTube account sharing.
- Click Connect next to ESPN.
- After being directed to ESPN.com, click Agree & Activate.
- You will be prompted to enter an email address and password.
- You will be asked whether you’d like to share your ESPN Fantasy data with YouTube TV.
- Click Link Accounts.
Once the YouTube and ESPN accounts have been linked, YouTube TV subscribers can then start using the ESPN app to stream all of the content included with an ESPN Unlimited subscription.
A Long Time Coming For YouTube TV Subscribers
The availability of ESPN Unlimited at no additional cost has been a long time coming for YouTube TV subscribers.
To put the length of time subscribers have had to wait into perspective, DirecTV streaming, Fubo and Hulu Live TV subscribers all gained access to ESPN Unlimited back in August of last year.
Support was then rolled out to Fubo Sports subscribers in October, followed by DirecTV satellite customers in November.
YouTube first confirmed that its live TV subscribers would receive access to ESPN’s new direct-to-consumer service at no additional cost back in November of last year.
The announcement was part of a wider agreement that brought an end to a month-long dispute between Disney and YouTube TV.
Other key elements of the agreement included the return of Disney’s full linear portfolio to YouTube TV, access to a selection of live and on-demand programming from ESPN Unlimited inside YouTube TV, the addition of select networks in various genre-specific packages, and the ability for YouTube to offer the Disney+, Hulu Bundle.
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