Disney+ to hike prices, introduce ad-supported tier in December

Comments

• Reply 1 of 26

  rob53 Posts: 3,323member

  August 10, 2022 9:09PM

  Ad supported—not the reason I’m streaming. I’m tired of all the stupid ads on YouTube and like being able to watch TV shows and movies without constantly being interrupted. If Disney actually provided more and better content I’d pay the increased price, otherwise I’ll probably drop it. 

  
• Reply 2 of 26

  jimh2 Posts: 679member

  August 10, 2022 9:33PM

  Quickly figuring out how cable pricing works. At some point it will be cheaper to just get cable again. They will price themselves right out of their customers. I paid for the initial 3 years, but after that I’m done. They really don’t come close to comparing to what Netflix has. 

  edited August 2022
• Reply 3 of 26

  hmlongco Posts: 590member

  August 10, 2022 10:04PM

  Every single service thinks that they can gradually shift prices up to $20-$25-$30-$40-$50 per month. Or more.
  
  And when they find out they can't, that's when they'll decide that in order to increase revenue even further they'll be "forced"  to include advertising at the beginning of every show, the end of of every show, and eventually every 10 minutes during the show.
  
  In addition, of course, to selling every scrap of user data they can gather.
  
  Which is when I'll be "forced" to go back to simply buying the few things I want to see and dropping everything else.

  edited August 2022
• Reply 4 of 26

  kelemor Posts: 31member

  August 10, 2022 10:29PM

  Well been holding on but this helps made decisions in the future easier….
  
  
  

  
• Reply 5 of 26

  StrangeDays Posts: 13,135member

  August 10, 2022 10:42PM

  hmlongco said:

  Every single service thinks that they can gradually shift prices up to $20-$25-$30-$40-$50 per month. Or more.
  
  And when they find out they can't, that's when they'll decide that in order to increase revenue even further they'll be "forced"  to include advertising at the beginning of every show, the end of of every show, and eventually every 10 minutes during the show.
  
  In addition, of course, to selling every scrap of user data they can gather.
  
  Which is when I'll be "forced" to go back to simply buying the few things I want to see and dropping everything else.

  Yeah I prefer this, I have long bought seasons of the select shows I'm interested in on iTunes, and still do. Paired with one or two streaming services. I definitely don't need to try to recreate an entire cable subscription's offerings. Cable sucks anyway, it's mostly cooking shows and crummy reality TV. And, of course, ads.
  
  Unskippable ads completely suck, and there's no way on earth I'd pay even $1 to watch them. That the networks have so few ads and keep repeating the same GD ads over & over...is infuriating. 
  
  

  
• Reply 6 of 26

  Marvin Posts: 15,515moderator

  August 10, 2022 11:16PM

  jimh2 said:

  Quickly figuring out how cable pricing works. At some point it will be cheaper to just get cable again. They will price themselves right out of their customers. I paid for the initial 3 years, but after that I’m done. They really don’t come close to comparing to what Netflix has. 

  Cable is still lacking for on-demand content. I don't think there's any going back to pre-programmed channels.
  
  The streaming providers just priced their services too low as they wanted to ramp up subscriber volume to get the initial revenue stream. Compared to cable plans, they were priced far too low. Disney posted in their earnings how much they make from their other services:
  
  https://forums.appleinsider.com/discussion/225189#Comment_3347751
  
  They averaged $84/month from Hulu Live so they only needed 1/29th the subscriber volume to make 70% of the revenue as Disney+.
  
  The prices will also rise with inflation.
  
  The main thing that's lacking on streaming services is quality. In all the tens of billions spent over the years, not a single movie or TV franchise to rival even low quality blockbuster movies. The closest would be the Star Wars TV series and a couple of decent movie productions, the other 95%+ is straight-to-DVD content.
  
  I just want a service to be able to watch every recent Blu-Ray release without paying for each purchase outright. Apple TV+ is close by putting recent movies in the listings and the rental prices are cheap but it's still pay-per-view and not every movie can be rented.
  
  They can still have a $4.99 option (Apple TV+) but they can have a premium service Apple Cinema that goes up to $49.99/month (possibly with custom extras) and can have tiers. The highest tier should give a movie rental per day (most people won't stream a movie per day). They can bundle Disney+ with one of the tiers or have a deal with Disney to allow selective streaming of shows against the subscription so if you pay $49.99/month and want to watch Obi Wan, they send $10 to Disney for watching that show. Unused rentals can accumulate and be gifted to other people.
  

  
• Reply 7 of 26

  iOS_Guy80 Posts: 914member

  August 10, 2022 11:18PM

  A family with children still makes having Disney+ a compelling streaming option.

  
• Reply 8 of 26

  mattinoz Posts: 2,524member

  August 10, 2022 11:34PM

  Wait so they want me to pay the same money for the same limited content that they eek out to get you to pay for multiple months and they want to show me ads for the sole purpose of annoying me as no one advertise anything I'm interested in anyway. All the while their algorithm will surface shows that are popular with no connection to what I've watched in their system. 
  
  And they think that makes a compelling customer experience. 
  
  No clearly they all run on the crying kids model. Parents will play for no ads to keep the kids quiet. 

  
• Reply 9 of 26

  zeus423 Posts: 279member

  August 11, 2022 1:31AM

  The amount of new programming they are putting out, especially for Star Wars and Marvel, doesn't come free. It's still one of the services I use the most, but I cannot do ads anymore. Netflix ruined that for me years ago. I guess I'll pay the extra fee.
  
  We went on a trip when our daughter was 6 and had only used Netflix for her cartoons. In the hotel she said, "Something is wrong with the TV when an ad came on interrupting her show." We explained it was a commercial. She didn't understand...LOL.

  
• Reply 10 of 26

  applejakes Posts: 71member

  August 11, 2022 3:28AM

  Apple could charge Super Bowl advertising rates if they had an ad supported tier.  Call me crazy but I think they should make it free.
  
  Billions per year in profit just sitting there IMO.

  
• Reply 11 of 26

  winstoner71 Posts: 117member

  August 11, 2022 4:10AM

  JP234 said:

  Stop your whining. Someone has to pay the enormous costs of producing TV programming and movies. Might as well be you, you're the one using them.

  Thank you. The whining is unreal. 

  
• Reply 12 of 26

  bestkeptsecret Posts: 4,291member

  August 11, 2022 4:44AM

  "Disney + Pixar + Marvel + Star Wars + National Geographic". I'm just so happy that everything I am uninterested in is under one streaming service! 
  
  Disney+ was offered for free with my HotStar streaming service (costing ~$2 per month) which is why it lingers on in our household. If it was a separate service, it would have been a very easy decision to not opt for it.

  
• Reply 13 of 26

  Paul_B Posts: 82member

  August 11, 2022 5:03AM

  Has anyone heard of this Open platform called Torrents.  It's free and fast.  Think.
  

  
• Reply 14 of 26

  ackpfft Posts: 39member

  August 11, 2022 1:10PM

  Paul_B said:

  Has anyone heard of this Open platform called Torrents.  It's free and fast.  Think.
  

  It’s not ‘free’. It’s paid for by everyone else because you’re to cheap to find $7.

  
• Reply 15 of 26

  DAalseth Posts: 3,098member

  August 11, 2022 2:05PM

  I just read that Disney now has more subscribers than Netflix.
  https://www.bbc.com/news/business-62500520
  Says to me that, if they are still growing, then Disney hasn’t reached the cost/benefit magic spot yet. Hence the price increase is justifiable, from a purely business standpoint

  
• Reply 16 of 26

  danox Posts: 3,479member

  August 11, 2022 2:23PM

  Do they still make DVD’s? Ha Ha Ha…..

  
• Reply 17 of 26

  mike1 Posts: 3,444member

  August 11, 2022 2:39PM

  rob53 said:

  Ad supported—not the reason I’m streaming. I’m tired of all the stupid ads on YouTube and like being able to watch TV shows and movies without constantly being interrupted. If Disney actually provided more and better content I’d pay the increased price, otherwise I’ll probably drop it. 

  
  More and better content? There isn't a service that has delivered such a huge amount of new, high-quality programming. Even movies released in the theaters end up on the service pretty quickly. If Marvel and Star Wars are not your thing, then this isn't for you, but you can't say there isn't new content being delivered. Apple TV is stuff is generally pretty good, but a lot of Netflix originals are now Hallmark Channel quality.
  
  

  
• Reply 18 of 26

  mike1 Posts: 3,444member

  August 11, 2022 2:52PM

  ackpfft said:

  Paul_B said:

  Has anyone heard of this Open platform called Torrents.  It's free and fast.  Think.
  

  It’s not ‘free’. It’s paid for by everyone else because you’re to cheap to find $7.

  And illegal and not exactly user friendly.
  
  

  
• Reply 19 of 26

  zoetmb Posts: 2,656member

  August 11, 2022 4:12PM

  This is just greed. Disney+ already generates about $11b in subscriber revenue that they don’t have to share with theaters or international distributors.  That’s far more than they ever made from theatrical.    Do they really want to match Netflix for the percentage of people who are canceling?
  
  In spite of owning the former 20th C Fox (although only the post-1984(?) library, there isn’t really all that much content there.  After your kids watch all the Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars films for the umpteenth time, there’s not much else. 

  
  

  I predict huge cancellation levels.  Disney’s CEO seems intent on destroying the company.  The parks are becoming an overcrowded and vastly overpriced disaster and their biggest fans are getting really pissed off. 

  
  

  
• Reply 20 of 26

  chadbag Posts: 2,029member

  August 11, 2022 6:21PM

  I’m glad I dumped them last November when my Year subscription lapsed.  

  
  

  Between their Nazi like behaviors in the theme parks we witnessed in Orlando last year, their ever increasing prices, and their politicization of their operation, I’ve moved on from Disney.