Disney Announces Massive Price Hike For Disney+ And Hulu, Introduces New Ad-Free Bundle

Disney Announces Massive Price Hike For Disney+ And Hulu, Introduces New Ad-Free Bundle

Following its mixed earnings call, Disney announced plans to increase the price of Disney+ by 27% for its ad-free subscription plan starting in October. The price of Hulu without ads will increase by 20%.

By MattIsForReal - Aug 09, 2023 10:08 PM EST
Filed Under: Disney

Disney's struggles to turn its signature streaming service, Disney+, profitable have been well documented. The company has slowly been raising the prices of its various streaming services and today announced the next round of price hikes.

Following the latest earnings report, it was confirmed that Disney will increase the price of its ad-free subscription plans for both Disney+ and Hulu. Beginning October 12, Disney+ with no ads will cost $13.99 per month ($139.99/year) — a massive 27% increase from its current price of $10.99.

Hulu is also getting a steep 20% price hike for its ad-free plan. The price will increase to a whopping $17.99 per month.

Perhaps a bit of good news though, is that the price for both services with ads will stay the same. Both Disney+ and Hulu with ads will cost $7.99/month each.

Disney is also introducing a new premium bundle that combines Disney+ and Hulu with no ads for $19.99 per month. This new plan will launch on September 6 and offer a small savings by subscribing to both of these rather than only one. The timing of this bundle is no accident as Disney plans to roll both Hulu content and Disney+ content into one app later this year.

For those into sports, Disney also offers ESPN+, which is also getting a price increase. 

As of right now, here's what the updated pricing will look like for each subscription plan to each of Disney's different streaming services:

Disney+

  • With Ads (No Price Change): $7.99/month
  • No Ads: $13.99/month (139.99/year)

Hulu

  • With Ads (No Price Change): $7.99/month ($79.99/year)
  • No Ads: $17.99/month
  • Disney+ (With Ads) Add-On (No Change): $2.00/month
  • ESPN+ on Hulu Ad-On: $10.99

ESPN+

  • With Ads: $10.99/month ($109.99/year)
  • UFC PPV (standalone) (No Change): $79.99/per event
  • UFC PPV + Annual: $134.98

Bundles

  • *NEW* Duo Premium: Disney+ (No Ads), Hulu (No Ads): $19.99/month
  • Duo Basic: Disney+ (With Ads), Hulu (With Ads) (No Change): $9.99/month
  • Trio Premium: Disney+ (No Ads), Hulu (No Ads), ESPN+ (With Ads): $24.99/month
  • Trio Basic: Disney+ (With Ads), Hulu (With Ads), ESPN+ (With Ads): $14.99/month

Hulu + Live TV

  • With Ads: $76.99
  • No Ads: $89.99

This is the second price hike in as many years for Disney+, which launched in 2019 at a much lower price of just $6.99 per month — nearly half the price of Netflix. After these two latest price hikes, Disney+ is now almost as expensive as Netflix's Standard Plan ($15.49/month).

Iger noted on his call with investors that the company didn't notice a major loss in subscribers as a result of last year's price hike of $3 per month.

“We took a pretty significant price increase at Disney+ sometime late in 2022, and we really didn’t see significant churn or loss of subs because of that, which was actually heartening,” Iger said during Disney’s earnings call on Wednesday. It will be interesting to see how people react to this latest round of hikes though. Iger added that Disney is deliberately trying to steer users toward its ad-supported plans — evidenced by keeping those prices the same — as the advertising landscape for streaming is healthier than traditional linear TV. 

Disney reported 146.1 million total Disney+ subscribers, a 7.4% decline from the previous quarter, although the majority of the losses came from its Indian brand Disney+ Hotstar. The actual subscriber loss in the U.S. and Canada was only 1%. Through some effective cost-cutting tactics, Disney managed to lower its streaming losses to $512 million compared to the $1.1 billion loss in the prior-year period.

At this point, with each individual streaming service getting into the double digits for its pricing, households on a budget are going to have to start being much more selective with which platforms they subscribe to. The days of subscribing to everything all at once may be over for many. Or perhaps more people start to gravitate towards the ad-supported plans. Disney added 3.3 million subscribers to its advertising-supported service since it launched in the U.S. in December. And now, about 40% of new Disney+ subscribers sign up for the ad tier.

Do you still plan to continue subscribing to Disney+ and/or Hulu with the new increased pricing?

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Oberlin4Prez
Oberlin4Prez - 8/9/2023, 11:04 PM
Methos5000
Methos5000 - 8/9/2023, 11:08 PM
3$ is a massive increase?
KWilly
KWilly - 8/9/2023, 11:15 PM
Dang, and [bleep].com continues to give me free content lol
KaptainKhaos
KaptainKhaos - 8/9/2023, 11:28 PM
Yo ho, yo ho a pirates life for me!!
dracula
dracula - 8/10/2023, 12:38 AM
@KaptainKhaos -
Nightwing1015
Nightwing1015 - 8/9/2023, 11:43 PM
This isn’t a large enough increase for most people to turn to piracy - it’s going up like everything else is roughly in line with inflation
SauronthePower
SauronthePower - 8/10/2023, 4:37 AM
@Nightwing1015 - interesting take

Problem is is that you can’t pirate food, utilities, car payment, or mortgage/rent but you CAN, and can easily pirate a vastly overpriced digital streaming platform

This is a massive tactical mistake on Iger’s part
Nightwing1015
Nightwing1015 - 8/10/2023, 10:46 AM
@SauronthePower - I actually don't agree that you can easily pirate the streaming service. It's far less convenient to go find and individually download everything you wanna watch and also not be able to skip through titles with a streaming UI.

The average monthly car payment in the US is like 500 dollars. For the sake of 3 bucks most Americans wouldn't bother with the hassle.

Anyway, Disney is a major company and has probably run the tests and calculations of the price elasticity and know they won't lose money. Otherwise they wouldn't make this change.
SauronthePower
SauronthePower - 8/11/2023, 2:19 AM
@Nightwing1015 - a ‘modified’ firestick will bring everything up on its menu platform, front, center, and easily

D+ was 6.99/mo less than 2 years ago. Iger is now saying that anyone who wishes to keep the same level of service (meaning ‘ad-free’) is welcome to do so….at a 100% premium increase
Kadara
Kadara - 8/9/2023, 11:52 PM
I'll stick with my family shared and add free Netflix and Amazon Prime thank you very much.
SonOfAGif
SonOfAGif - 8/9/2023, 11:53 PM
The only folks who will be upset and affected are those who are struggling financially and those whose friends/family will cancel the account and they can't watch the shows on their dime. $13.99 is still a fair deal considering we have access to so many classics. I have it to watch Marvel + Star Wars but also so my nephews can watch whatever they want. I have no issue with the increase.
SauronthePower
SauronthePower - 8/10/2023, 4:41 AM
@SonOfAGif - it has gone up from $6.99 to 13.99 in a 2 year span

THAT is where ‘the rub’ lies

Couple this level of increase with the fact that Iger has reduced and restricted quantity of content and this is a disaster in the making

I’m almost starting to wonder if Iger is attempting to scuttle D+ because he looks at it as an inherited Chapek financial boondoggle. Not a lot else makes sense….
MG0019
MG0019 - 8/10/2023, 11:31 AM
@SauronthePower - and then The Mandalorian gets deleted forever for a 2% tax discount.
PantherKing
PantherKing - 8/9/2023, 11:54 PM
It’s been nice knowing you disney plus
SauronthePower
SauronthePower - 8/10/2023, 4:47 AM
@PantherKing - I have to admit that this seems like almost a blatantly intentional loser from Iger
Razorface1
Razorface1 - 8/9/2023, 11:59 PM
Some people will defend anything, jeez...
SonOfAGif
SonOfAGif - 8/10/2023, 12:07 AM
@Razorface1 - Whose defending it? There is a difference between defending and accepting. The price went up and I see people accepting it as it doesn't make a difference towards their finances. Nobody is "Defending" anything. I don't see one person content and advocating for price increases. But price increases are inevitable in life.
CorndogBurglar
CorndogBurglar - 8/10/2023, 12:23 AM
@SonOfAGif - While you are right, $3 a month more isn't a big enough amount to make a lot of people give it up, there are people that won't find it to be good based on principles.

I'll probably get rid of it and I have no financial issues. I have it for Marvel and Star Wars. But I only ever watch it when a new show comes out for those franchises, which isn't even half the year. And then when I do watch it, it sucks. Mando season 3 sucked. Obi Wan sucked. Only two Marvel shows were enjoyable for me. And for anything else, like Loki S2, I'll just subscribe, watch it, and unsubsidized when it's done.

I've seen the OG Star Wars movies a million times. I don't need to pay a monthly fee to have access to them because I own them already and can pop them in my PS5 whenever I want.

Point is, they don't have enough content to justify charging as much as Netflix or Max. And other streaming services that are better than D+ don't even charge this much.

So for me, it's one less streaming service to pay for on a regular basis. I have 6 streaming services, cable, and Playststion +. That shit adds up. I'm lucky enough to live very comfortably with our household income, but that doesn't mean I need to keep paying for something I rarely use.

So no, it's not just people who are struggling financially.
Razorface1
Razorface1 - 8/10/2023, 2:24 AM
@SonOfAGif - exhibit 1
SauronthePower
SauronthePower - 8/10/2023, 4:49 AM
@SonOfAGif - has increased 100% in a 2-3 year frame

THAT is not inevitable
Feralwookiee
Feralwookiee - 8/10/2023, 12:00 AM
I can't imagine actually paying for any of this shit.

Off topic: Here's a movie that no one is excited for, although the reviews are not AS bad as I thought they'd be. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/gran_turismo_based_on_a_true_story
LexScarhooks
LexScarhooks - 8/10/2023, 12:54 AM
Pluto TV is my go to.
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