Archived version: https://archive.ph/w8JRj
Effective October 12, the company will raise the monthly price of its ad-free plans Disney+ and Hulu plans by more than 20%.
The Disney+ ad-free plan will rise by 27% to $13.99 a month in the US, up from $10.99. That’s double the $6.99 monthly cost Disney charged for the service when it first launched in 2019.
Hulu’s ad-free plan will increase by $3 a month, or 20%, to $17.99 a month. The ad-supported tiers for both services will remain at $7.99 each.
The price hikes come amid Disney’s continued efforts to slash $5.5 billion in costs this year.
The monthly prices of its two Hulu live TV packages will also increase by $7 each for both the ad-free plan and the ad-supported offering. ESPN+ will go up by $1 to $10.99 a month.
Additionally, Disney announced that starting September 6 subscribers in the US will have access to a new ad-free bundled subscription featuring the ad-free Disney+ and Hulu services for $19.99 a month.
The music industry adapted for the internet. Film and TV will need to do the same if they want to reduce piracy to nothing like music. Naturally an all in one streaming service won’t be cheap like music due to costs. But 50$ for a one stop shop video streaming service seems fair to me. 50$ split across multiple UIs feels like a rip. The music industry also made compromises on profits so greedy ol Hollywood can do the same. But let’s be real, they try to make copyright a criminal offense through lobbying before that.