Disney announced yet another round of price increases for access to its streaming channels which also include Hulu and ESPN+, during a Wednesday, August 9, 2023 results call. Despite the fact that the number of its Disney+ subscribers declined by more than 10 million viewers in the third fiscal quarter of the firm, which ended on July 1.
How Much Price Did the Disney Raise for Streaming Services?
In an effort to boost corporate profitability, Disney is hiking the pricing for practically all of its streaming services. Starting on October 12, the price of Disney+ without commercials will increase by 27% to $13.99 per month.
Disney+ will continue to cost $7.99 a month with ads. Beginning Nov. 1, Disney will also extend its ad-tier service to a few markets in Canada and Europe. Disney is raising the cost of Hulu without advertisements by 20% to $17.99 per month. Hulu with advertisements will continue to cost $7.99 per month.
Comparatively, the monthly cost of Netflix’s regular package without ads is $15.49. Max from Warner Bros. Discovery is $15.99 a month. You can check out the below post in which you can see the list of increased prices.
Disney announces new price hikes for their streaming services:
• Disney+ without ads will have a price increase from $10.99 to $13.99 per month for US customers.
• Hulu without ads will increase from $14.99 to $17.99 per month. pic.twitter.com/AMX9HxWdqP
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) August 9, 2023
Disney believes its video library can compete with both Netflix and Max, as seen by its choice to price Disney+ almost as expensive as those services’ commercial-free counterparts and charge even more for Hulu. Disney CEO Bob Iger purposefully priced the specialized family service at $6.99 per month when he introduced Disney+ in 2019, making it less expensive than Netflix.
Customers can pay $19.99 per month in a new “premium duo” package for Disney+ and Hulu without advertisements saving them $12 per month. The commencement date for that offer is September 6. The $9.99 monthly cost of the Disney+ and Hulu combo with commercials won’t change.
Disney also raised the cost of its package which includes Disney+ (ad-free), Hulu (ad-free) and ESPN+ (with advertising), from $19.99 per month to $24.99 per month. The monthly cost of the $14.99 all-product package with advertising represents an increase of $2.
Take a look at the below tweet for increase prices:
Disney+ Premium, and Hulu Premium will increase in price by $3 each
$10.99 to $13.99 Disney+
$14.99 to $17.99 Hulu
The Bundle is moving to $24.99 pic.twitter.com/Xahe06B5Mb— Dexerto (@Dexerto) August 9, 2023
Disney reported a $512 million loss for the third quarter of its fiscal year. 800,000 new customers to Disney+, excluding Hotstar in India were gained during that time. With Hotstar excluded, there were around 146 million Disney+ subscribers at the end of the third quarter.
Disney is also raising the monthly cost of Hulu + Live TV with Ads from $69.99 to $76.99. The monthly cost of the ad-free Hulu + Live TV will increase to $89.99 from $82.99.
NBCUniversal’s streaming service, Peacock, has reportedly lost more than $650 million, to know more about it you can read our below post:
What Did Iger Say About the Disney Prices?
Disney upped the monthly cost of Disney+ by $3 last year. Iger confessed that he was surprised by the low number of service cancellations caused by the price hike. Iger stated on Wednesday, August 9, 2023 during Disney’s earnings call:
“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 pointed out that by maintaining the same fees for those services, Disney is consciously attempting to push consumers toward its ad-supported services. Iger stated that the streaming advertising environment is more favorable than that of conventional linear TV.
Iger stated on the call that since the service’s December launch, Disney has added 3.3 million customers for the country. According to him, the advertising tier has been chosen by almost 40% of new Disney+ users.
Even if the next Hollywood writers’ and actors’ strikes threaten to disrupt its supply of material, Disney is now wagering that consumers would pay more for its streaming services.
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