Disney Raising Prices for Hulu, ESPN+, and Disney+ This Fall

[zapmymac]

I paid annually for the last few years, I won’t have Disney this year, collectively, things are just adding up to be too much for me in 2024.

Guess, I’ll be seeing if I can buy the complete Clone Wars+The Bad Batch series on disc. Oh, and Andor S2

 

[JordanCautious]

Lol. I’m so glad I don’t watch any TV because if I did, this would’ve had me mad. This is ridiculous. At this point, it’s cheaper to just replace Streaming Services with Game Pass Ultimate or GeforceNow Ultimate.

Sometimes you have to ask yourself. Is this even worth the money? For most streaming services, anything more than maybe 3-4 months of the year, the answer is NO

 

[Apple$]

Unless it goes up, makes me glad I signed up for my carrier’s streaming bundle (Koodo Mobile in Canada) for Prime/Disney+/Netflix with ads all for $10/mo.

 

[poematik13]

dont care, amex platinum's streaming benefit pays it for me

 

[brofkand]

That sounds like a Disney problem. They have bloated budgets for over-the-hill actors thinking it is still Covid and every movie will bring in a billion. Start making GOOD shows and movies (and not just rehashing the same old IP) thinking it will bring them the $$.

The only company making money on streaming is Netflix (and I think some of the FAST services like Pluto may be profitable, but I'm not sure), largely because they don't have the old studio way of thinking and operating. That, and they were there first.

 

[webkit]

They aren’t losing subscribers, though, that’s the problem. Once consumers accepted Netflix reneging on password-sharing without a peep, all bets were off for streaming.

One reason they aren't losing customers is many still see "value" in the service. For example, when the Disney channel launched back in 1983 it wasn’t even a 24 hour channel and had much less content than Disney+ yet cost around $11/month or the equivalent of $35/month in today's dollars. Today's ad-free Disney+ even with the upcoming price increase is still less than half that with much more content, on demand, etc.

I think the problem with some of these streaming services is that they came in too low on price (to attract subscribers) and are now having to start to bring prices up to more realistic levels.

 

[dampfnudel]

Ok, it’s your turn Tim to announce an increase for the Fall.

 

[AeroEd]

Churn baby churn

 

[PsykX]

Streaming services are jumping the shark.

When I cut the cable in 2016, my main purpose was to actually save money, and boy did it work.

In 2024, I'm considering going back to cable. Less expensive for what it offers.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

We have the ad-free Disney+ and Hulu plan for $19.99, and at least that is staying the same. That and AMEX gives me $7/month back, so it's effectively $12.99. Raise it much and we'll just drop it.

That's the only streaming service we pay for. We're not budget-conscious, we just don't have much interest in TV or movies. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Oh yea, we still use our outdoor antenna for locals.

 

[jedimasterkyle]

I think the problem with some of these streaming services is that they came in too low on price (to attract subscribers) and are now having to start to bring prices up to more realistic levels.

But the other side to that coin is that people's paychecks and money aren't going as far these days so something has to give. People either stop spending on streaming all together because mortgage/rent and food take priority OR streaming services have to bite the preverbal bullet and accept losses.

The "Let them eat cake" perspective that some of these companies have is grossly out of touch but that's the only lens they're willing to look through too.

 

[sw1tcher]

So Disney+ has more than doubled its price in 5 years… Admittedly, they started with a great price, but after the second price raise, I cancelled my subscription.

All this data, of Disney/Hulu, HBO/Discovery/Warner, and Netflix, just shows the trend: they are going to keep rising prices indefinitely until people start massively canceling their subscription.

It’s interesting how the prices on the Music stream market stay stable. Maybe because there’s a direct competition between Spotify and Apple Music? I know there are other services, but they are the minority.

Or the cost to produce music is much less than the cost for these streaming services to produce video content. Their budgets seem to go up almost every year. It's not cheap to hire actors, producers, make-up artists, set designers, etc.

Netflix is spending $17 billion this year on content. $3 billion more than 2 years ago.

 

[FasterQuieter]

The more the prices go up the fewer services I use. I dropped Disney on the last price hike. I guess enough people keep paying for it to be worth it to them though. Fewer users also reduces costs I guess.

 

[jlc1978]

I though cord cutting was going to bring in a golden age of lower costs and the ability to only pay for services a la carte /s

As long as companies have some content that people will pay for they will tend to keep it on their streaming services so as the get the most revenue possible for their catalogs.

It’s almost to the point cable is cheaper with more content.

 

[Jamie0003]

I went back to buying all my content on iTunes a few years back. Not the best quality option, but certainly the most convenient and no crap like this. I hope Apple brings in lossless one day, I think it’s inevitable once they have the cheaper Vision headset on the market, as it’s a killer app imo.

I know people supposedly lose stuff on there, but I can name a handful of shows and movies that I know aren’t on iTunes anymore, but I can still stream from my account.

Only issue is I can’t purchase everything on there, such as a bunch of Netflix shows, but I get Netflix free with my phone plan anyways

 

[Mazda 3s]

One reason they aren't losing customers is many still see "value" in the service. For example, when the Disney channel launched back in 1983 it wasn’t even a 24 hour channel and had much less content than Disney+ yet cost around $11/month or the equivalent of $35/month in today's dollars. Today's ad-free Disney+ even with the upcoming price increase is still less than half that with much more content, on demand, etc.

I think the problem with some of these streaming services is that they came in too low on price (to attract subscribers) and are now having to start to bring prices up to more realistic levels.

That's part of it. But the value of the service hasn't increased by 2x. And my paycheck definitely hasn't increased 2x in five years.

When we first got Disney+, our kids loved it. Now that they're older, they barely watch it. They'd rather play outside, play on their tablets/phones, or play Xbox. ANd if they watch movies, they just watch whatever's on SlingTV (which we pay around $50/month for). Fine by me, I'll gladly drop it.

 

[applesith]

I canceled D+ after the first 2 episodes of the Acolyte disappointed me (the first SW series I never finished). I keep getting Hulu at a discount because I go through the cancellation process. HBO Max has the same loophole.

 

[backdraft]

Bye bye bye!

 

[FineWoven]

Jesus it's getting to the point now where having just a handful of ad-free streaming services is damn near $100/mo or even more. I'm starting to seriously consider cancelling most if not all of these services with the exception of those that are bundled with other things that I'll always have to pay for no matter what, for example T-Mobile including a Netflix membership with my plan or my ISP significantly discounting YouTube TV.

 

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

“It’s cheaper than cable!”, they said.

 

[jarman92]

One reason they aren't losing customers is many still see "value" in the service. For example, when the Disney channel launched back in 1983 it wasn’t even a 24 hour channel and had much less content than Disney+ yet cost around $11/month or the equivalent of $35/month in today's dollars. Today's ad-free Disney+ even with the upcoming price increase is still less than half that with much more content, on demand, etc.

I think the problem with some of these streaming services is that they came in too low on price (to attract subscribers) and are now having to start to bring prices up to more realistic levels.

I'm sure Disney will happily accept your $35/month if you're so eager to pay it.

 

[Zwhaler]

dont care, amex platinum's streaming benefit pays it for me

Yeah, but Amex Platinum keeps going up as a result. You're paying one way or another.

 

[Spock]

They have to raise money for all the money that they lost with that terrible Star Wars show they just released.

 

[FineWoven]

It’s interesting how the prices on the Music stream market stay stable. Maybe because there’s a direct competition between Spotify and Apple Music? I know there are other services, but they are the minority.

I'm wondering if the reason for the music service providers being so hesitant to mess with their prices is because they fear the resurgence of online pirating, and rightfully so. The record labels were facing an existential crisis a couple decades ago before things like the iTunes Store saved them. And that was long before everyone and their brother had smartphones and high-speed broadband connections as is obviously the case these days, making P2P music sharing even easier than it was back then which was already a breeze.

 

[Blackstick]

dont care, amex platinum's streaming benefit pays it for me

Amex platinum is $700/year... that's $60/month. Unless you're living in hotels and international airport lounges, it makes zero sense to regular people who travel 1-2x per year.