Independent Streamer Nebula Raises Price for First Time
Independent Streamer Nebula Raises Price for First Time
Nebula CEO Dave Wiskus says he gets asked all the time how supporters can give Nebula more money.
Nebula is one of the most fascinating streaming services on the market. Unlike Hollywood’s biggest services like Netflix and Disney+, Nebula’s content is user-generated, and the streamer does not rely on ads to bring in revenue. But even a streamer as unique as Nebula isn’t immune to the pressures of the marketplace, which is why the streamer is increasing its subscription rate by $1 per month for new customers starting on Sept. 1.
Key Details:
- Nebula is increasing in price from $5 per month to $6.
- The service is expanding the types of content it offers, including more prestige-style TV.
- Existing customers will not see their price rise for some time, if ever.
For those unfamiliar with the streamer, Nebula is a creator-owned service that hosts videos made by its community. Subscribers can watch videos in categories spanning music, history, video gaming, social and legal questions, and more. Nebula customers can also watch classes from creators on a variety of subjects, listen to podcasts, and more. The streamer was previously available in a bundle with Curiosity Stream as well as via standalone options, but struck out on its own exclusively around a year and a half ago with a price of $5 per month, or $50 per year.
According to Variety, the price is now increasing to $6 per month for new customers as of Sept. 1. Existing customers will not see their price rise at that time, and may never see the rate increase at all according to Nebula CEO Dave Wiskus.
“It would take a lot for us to raise rates for existing subscribers,” Wiskus told subscribers on the Nebula sub-Reddit last week. “The plan is to grow so much that the percentage of people on the old pricing just isn’t worth the hassle of annoying them. But, legally speaking, never say never.”
How will Nebula attract so many new customers that a price increase for current subscribers is unnecessary? New types of content are at the forefront of the company’s plans. A new movie studio will help churn out feature-length videos, and prestige-style TV shows will also bolster Nebula’s lineup.
“We’re over 200 creators now, the original productions were going bigger and bigger with the originals, we’re trying more audacious things, we’re moving into more prestige television-style formats — what the subscriber gets for the money, the value has gone up,” Wiskus told Variety.
Considering the state of the streaming marketplace, a $1 price increase on a service that is run by creators and welcomes new types of content every day is hardly an outrageous proposition, especially since Nebula is an ad-free streamer. Contrast it with a service like Disney+, which recently announced price increases for nearly all of its plans and bundle options for the third year in a row.
“What we’ve seen, one of the most common requests we get is, is there a way we can pay you more,” Wiskus explained to Variety. “No joke, we get this question through our support all the time. People ask if there’s a way they can pay us more. And I think that it comes down to, unlike the big streamers, the dynamic for us with the audience is they want to support the creators. They want to support this business venture that the creators have gotten together and embarked on.”
Nebula
Nebula is a paid video streaming app created by YouTube creators within the Standard creator community. It is designed to let YouTube video creators test-drive new content before posting it on established YouTube channels. The app’s content comes in a variety of categories, including Music, History, Gaming, and Film and TV. Videos, podcasts, and classes are available.