Disney+ to hike prices, introduce ad-supported tier in December
Disney+ will introduce a new ad-supported tier of its streaming service later in 2022 while hiking the price of the current ad-free plans, including bundles with Hulu and ESPN+.
Disney+
The new pricing structure, which will also include ad-supported versions of its Hulu and ESPN+ services, will officially debut to the public on Dec. 8, Disney announced on Wednesday.
Under the new structure, a basic Disney+ subscription with ads will cost $7.99 -- the same cost as its current pricing tier. A premium version with no ads will run customers $10.99 a month.
Hulu with ads is also seeing a price increase from $6.99 a month to $7.99 a month. A premium Hulu subscription with no ads is also getting more expensive at $14.99, instead of the $12.99 it is currently.
ESPN+ will remain the same price at $9.99 a month with ads.
As far as the Disney bundle, existing subscribers will see their subscription hiked by a $1 to $14.99 a month. Note that this only applies to legacy Disney Bundle subscribers -- new subscribers will pay $19.99 a month for Disney+ and Hulu with no ads.
A basic Disney Bundle with ads across Disney+ and Hulu will cost $9.99 a month. Adding in ESPN+, which isn't included in the basic plan, will add $2 to that price point.
"With our new ad-supported Disney+ offering and an expanded lineup of plans across our entire streaming portfolio, we will be providing greater consumer choice at a variety of price points to cater to the diverse needs of our viewers and appeal to an even broader audience," said Kareem Daniel, Chairman of Disney Media & Entertainment Distribution.
Read on AppleInsider
Disney+
The new pricing structure, which will also include ad-supported versions of its Hulu and ESPN+ services, will officially debut to the public on Dec. 8, Disney announced on Wednesday.
Under the new structure, a basic Disney+ subscription with ads will cost $7.99 -- the same cost as its current pricing tier. A premium version with no ads will run customers $10.99 a month.
Hulu with ads is also seeing a price increase from $6.99 a month to $7.99 a month. A premium Hulu subscription with no ads is also getting more expensive at $14.99, instead of the $12.99 it is currently.
ESPN+ will remain the same price at $9.99 a month with ads.
As far as the Disney bundle, existing subscribers will see their subscription hiked by a $1 to $14.99 a month. Note that this only applies to legacy Disney Bundle subscribers -- new subscribers will pay $19.99 a month for Disney+ and Hulu with no ads.
A basic Disney Bundle with ads across Disney+ and Hulu will cost $9.99 a month. Adding in ESPN+, which isn't included in the basic plan, will add $2 to that price point.
"With our new ad-supported Disney+ offering and an expanded lineup of plans across our entire streaming portfolio, we will be providing greater consumer choice at a variety of price points to cater to the diverse needs of our viewers and appeal to an even broader audience," said Kareem Daniel, Chairman of Disney Media & Entertainment Distribution.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Billions per year in profit just sitting there IMO.
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.
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
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.
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.