Disney announced yesterday that it’s raising the price of its Disney+, ESPN+ and Hulu streaming services in the coming weeks and months as the company seeks to reduce losses for its streaming division.
The Disney+ plan with no ads will increase from $7.99 a month to $10.99 a month on December 8 when the company starts a Disney+ package with ads for $7.99 a month.
Hulu’s price without ads will rise from $12.99 a month to $14.99 a month on October 10 while Hulu with ads will go up $1 from $6.99 a month to $7.99 a month.
Disney previously announced that ESPN+’s price will increase from $6.99 a month to $9.99 a month on August 23.
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In addition, Disney is raising the price of the Disney bundle which includes Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+.
Existing bundle customers who get an ad-free Disney+ with an ad-included Hulu and ads-included ESPN+ will pay $14.99 a month, a $1 a month increase. A bundle of Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+, all with ads, will actually decrease $1 a month to $12.99 a month.
A new bundle offering consisting of Disney+ with ads and Hulu with ads will cost $9.99 a month while a bundle including ad-free Disney+, ad-free Hulu and ads-included ESPN+ will cost $19.99 a month.
Hulu’s bundle with live Hulu, Disney+ and ESPN+ and Hulu’s on-demand menu (all three with ads) will now cost $69.99 a month. The Hulu Live bundle with ad-free Disney+ and ads-included ESPN+ and ads-included Hulu on-demand will cost $74.99 a month.
Disney’s new streaming prices seem triggered by the company’s disclosure yesterday that it lost $1.1 billion in the streaming category during its third quarter. As other streaming ventures (including Netflix) are discovering, the category is far from becoming a profit center. Streamers will need to raise prices and reduce expenses to survive in the coming years.
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The news from Disney is exactly what I feared and predicted. While I hoped I could save some money getting the Ad package those hopes are dashed. I can remain paying the current price but now I get Ads. Expect Netflix to follow suit. No new cheaper plan with ads. You want the cheapest plan without Ads, expect to pay more. Thank you HBO for offering a cheaper plan with ads, but they were always way over priced anyway.
20% increase for Disney and 30% increase for ESPN? Wow.
Why on Earth would anyone expect any TV service provider to keep their prices down?
Increase the incomes of U.S. citizens…and this is not much of a problem.