Breaking: Disney+ Announces Upcoming 27% Price Increase and an Ad-Free Disney+ Hulu Bundle
Get ready to pay even more for Disney+. During today’s Q3 earnings call, Disney CEO Bob Iger said the cost will be going up on October 12.
The price for ad-free Disney+ will go up $3/month to $13.99. Ad-free Hulu also gets a $3 hike, up to $17.99. The cost for an ad-free Disney+ and Hulu bundle will be $19.99. That new bundle will be available September 6, the same day Disney+ gets the live action remake of “The Little Mermaid.” Iger did say that ad-supported Hulu and Disney+ prices would remain unchanged.
The price of Hulu Live TV is also increasing to $76.99 with ads and $89.99 without ads. Read more about the Hulu Live price hike here.
New Disney Streaming Pricing
| Subscription | Tier | Monthly | Annual |
|---|---|---|---|
| Disney+ | With Ads (No Change) | $7.99 | N/A |
| No Ads* | $13.99 | $139.99 | |
| Hulu | With Ads (No Change) | $7.99 | $79.99 |
| No Ads* | $17.99 | N/A | |
| Disney+ (With Ads) Add-On (No Change) | $2.00 | N/A | |
| ESPN+ on Hulu Add-On* | $10.99 | N/A | |
| ESPN+ | With Ads* | $10.99 | $109.99 |
| UFC PPV (standalone) (No Change) | $79.99 (per event) | ||
| UFC PPV + Annual* | N/A | $134.98 | |
| Bundle Offerings | Duo Premium: Disney+ (No Ads), Hulu (No Ads)^ – NEW | $19.99 | N/A |
| Duo Basic: Disney+ (With Ads), Hulu (With Ads) (No Change) | $9.99 | N/A | |
| Trio Premium: Disney+ (No Ads), Hulu (No Ads), ESPN+ (With Ads) | $24.99 | N/A | |
| Trio Basic: Disney+ (With Ads), Hulu (With Ads), ESPN+ (With Ads)* | $14.99 | N/A | |
| Hulu + Live TV | With Ads* | $76.99 | N/A |
| No Ads* | $89.99 | N/A |
- Effective as of October 12, 2023
^Available beginning September 6, 2023
Disney+ also announced an ad-supported offering will be available in select markets across Europe and in Canada beginning November 1.
Disney+ lost a staggering 11.7 million subscribers in the last quarter, though most of those were Indian subscribers upset about the loss of IPL cricket. These price hikes could lead to even more losses.
The company announced an account-sharing crackdown is also on the way. “We are actively exploring ways to address account sharing and the best options for paying subscribers to share their accounts with friends and families,” Iger said. “Later this year, we will begin to update our subscriber agreement with additional terms on our sharing policies. And we will roll out tactics to drive monetization sometime in 2024.”
During the call, Iger laid out the thinking behind the price increase. “When you consider our path to profitability in streaming, it’s important to remember where we started and how we’ve adapted based on what we’ve learned,” Iger said. “We overachieved with massive subscriber growth with Disney+ out of the gate and we leaned into a spending level to fuel subscriber growth, which had been the key measure of success for many. All of this happened while we were still determining the right strategies for pricing, marketing, content, and specific international market investments. However, since my return, we’ve reset the whole business around economics designed to deliver significant, sustained profitability. We’re prioritizing the strength of our brands and franchises, we’re rationalizing the volume of content we make, what we spend, and what markets we invest in.”
Iger said the company is moving closer to a more unified streaming app, though it remains to be seen if that simply means a merger of Disney+ and Hulu, or whether ESPN+ also features in that experience. “We see a future where consumers can access even more of the company streaming content all in one place, resulting in higher user engagement, lower churn, and greater opportunity for advertisers,” Iger said.
Iger said 40% of new Disney+ subscribers are choosing ad-supported products.
More to come…
Disney+
Disney+ is a video streaming service with over 13,000 series and films from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, National Geographic, The Muppets, and more. It is available in 61 countries and 21 languages. It is notable for its popular original series like “The Mandalorian,” “Ms. Marvel,” “Loki,” “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” and “Andor.”