Disney is increasing the price of its Disney+ streaming service, as well as that of Hulu, in the coming months. The company plans to charge 13.99 USD for an ad-free Disney+ plan in the United States, which is a 3 USD increase for that plan. The company announced no plans to increase the price of the ad-powered plan, which remains at $7.99 for the time being,
At Hulu, Disney announced a price increase to $17.99 per month, which is a 20% increase. The ad-powered plan remains at $7.99 though.
Disney CEO Bob Iger revealed the price increase during yesterday's earnings call, stating that the media giant didn't see a "significant churn or loss of subs" in 2022, when it raised the price of Disney+ for the first time from the initial 6.99 USD. While Iger made no mention of price increases in other regions, it is likely that pricing will be adjusted in all supported regions in the coming months.
Disney+, which started out with an introductory offer of 6.99 USD, is almost reaching Netflix price levels with the coming increase. At 13.99 USD, it is closing in on Netflix's 15.49 USD per month and Discovery's Max $15.99 per month.
The streaming service's ad-supported tier has now about 3.3 million subscribers in the United States alone. Iger revealed that roughly 40% of new signups select the advertising-supported tier. Disney is not the only company that is prioritizing its ad-supported plans over ad-free plans; Netflix, for instance, started to drop the cheapest ad-free plan in select regions recently. Keeping the price of the ad-supported plan stable, it seems likely that its attraction will rise even more when the price change lands.
The company is in desperate need for money, as its streaming division lost 512 million USD in the third-quarter alone. The service has 105.7 million subscribers according to Iger. The price increase will hit Disney+ in the United States on October 12, 2023.
Iger revealed that Disney plans to do something against account sharing as well starting in 2024. No further details were provided at the time, but it could be that Disney is using Netflix's playbook to prevent password sharing by limiting viewing to households or adding paid extra slots to plans to increase viewing options.
Closing Words
Disney almost doubled the price of its streaming service Disney+ since it launched it in 2019. Whether the service is worth the money is an individual decision. Disney hopes that the upcoming price increase won't have too much of a negative effect on subscriber numbers. Some may switch to the ad-supported tier as a consequence.
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