Not surprised. The streaming services are losing money, so this will save the mouse 30%.
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Hulu and Disney+ No Longer Support Signups and Payment Using App Store
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What’s funny to me is the same people complaining about Apple’s 30% cut, which is industry standard, will also be complaining if these apps were removed from the App Store and you have to watch it in a browser if that’s even supported. If Apple isn’t getting a cut, then they aren’t obligated to keep apps that bring in a large sum of money from Apple’s customers on their App Store. It’s just complaining for the sake of complaining about Apple. Why even be here if that’s all you do? You don’t have to defend or support certain things, but I see some of the same people on every post with nothing good to say. Google, Microsoft and Samsung all have similar policies about what they take in commission but we don’t hear much about that.
This is Apple‘s fault. They got greedy with their ridiculous 30% fees. Large/medium corporations will leave and use other payment services. Smaller corps will stay and suffer. The consumer will lose their “one stop shop,” and will pay the same amount or more.
Late stage, App Store capitalism!
Late stage, App Store capitalism!
It isn’t just quality of selection, but Hulu actively screws up streaming on AppleTV hardware. It will simply stop streaming at a commercial break and not start up again no matter how many times you push play. So, you exit the content and restart it. If it puts you at the beginning of the commercial break again, you’ve got a better than even chance of it halting again. If it puts you at the beginning of the program, you may be able to skip past the spot where it halts, but only after watching all the commercials at the beginning of the program. It is an irritating experience.
Disney+, on the other hand, seems to work flawlessly on all devices.
The ease of cancelling is something that is a real benefit of using Apple. I had a subscription to MGM that was paid through Apple. It stopped working. I tried everything on the MGM app instructions and everything I could find on the web to get the subscription to work. No Deal. So, I tried canceling the subscription through the MGM app and through the website. There was no way to do so. Called Apple and told them it wasn’t working and I wanted to cancel. They refunded the payment that had gone through a week earlier and canceled the subscription for me.
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Just got a email from Hulu telling me they’re not bundling Disney with it and I have to select a new plan
I got an email recently saying the Disney ADD ON wasn't available anymore for Hulu but they changed me to the "Duo" sub which has both for basically the same as I was paying (slightly cheaper I think). I have always subbed directly from the streamers so I don't know if that makes a difference.
Makes it better for anyone that may be avoiding supporting Disney. I APPROVE!
Exactly. I wonder what thoughts are going through those who disagreed.
4 steps to cancel through Apple subscriptions, 7 steps to cancel through Disney.
website price should be 30% lower right? or they just want the 30% $$$
Has Disney done anything to improve security since they were hacked? “Hey, everybody, we’re going to store your payment details and we totally aren’t going to let terabytes of information escape… uhhh, again.”
“Hey, everybody, we’re going to store your payment details and we totally aren’t going to let terabytes of information escape… uhhh, again.”I didn’t give any hint that I thought that would be the case, only that I’m not prepared to pay that much for so little value to me.
Good point, one can always activate for a month, watch all they like and then cancel until the next thing they’re interested in comes along.
What do the other vendors charge? Is 30% industry standard or is it simply because Apple’s the largest?
My guess is two reasons.
1) The number of new subscribers is plateauing, so the ease of creating a new account and subscribing via the app has lost its value.
2) This also makes it harder to terminate your subscription, possibly discouraging “switchers”.
Of course more money in the pocket (potentially) is a good thing, but I feel it’s less about Apple and more about Disney having hit a subscriber wall and are now looking inwards on how to further extract more revenue from their existing user base.
1) The number of new subscribers is plateauing, so the ease of creating a new account and subscribing via the app has lost its value.
2) This also makes it harder to terminate your subscription, possibly discouraging “switchers”.
Of course more money in the pocket (potentially) is a good thing, but I feel it’s less about Apple and more about Disney having hit a subscriber wall and are now looking inwards on how to further extract more revenue from their existing user base.
That’s okay.
I no longer support Hulu and Disney+.
I no longer support Hulu and Disney+.
They didn’t “get greedy”, those have been the fees all along. Not raised, but, for many, dropped to 15%. If anyone’s greed has grown, it would be those that want to raise prices on their customers at the same time that they’re wanting an additional $2 from each of their customers.
Yeah, they all over-invested during COVID. They likely have internal numbers showing that more and more people are using Apple to easily sign up for a month, then immediately cancel the subscription than were before, so this is an effort to shore up their bottom line.
Disney’s cancellation process already includes a “Why are you leaving” question in their additional steps over canceling through Apple. I would NOT be surprised if they tried to the process more difficult… of course that might conflict with the recently passed California law?
Sure - why not?
It's not as if Apple owns its user base.
As a retaliatory measure, they should charge Apple 30% for any digital transaction conducted through their networks.
Payment service providers can do it for 3%, 4%, 5%.
Not more than than, at Disney's scale, depending on the additional services (taxes?) they're requiring.
Let's not pretend customers are "discovering" Disney+ through Apple's promotion on the App Store.
Even if they do, they $2 at least go to the company that actually provides the streaming service - and licensed/produced its content.
Not to yet another leeching middleman that just... you know, happens to be in a technical position to hold any app ransom by disabling their signing certificate.
Nope. Because as of 10/17/24 the cheapest plan with ads goes from 7.99 to 9.99, while the ad free jumped from 13.99 to 15.99. They’re taking their money back from Apple AND charging customers more.
You're going to have to.
They will probably increase the rate to cover the overhead of maintaining a pay system and credit card fees and some other nonsense they just made up.
Did they suddenly slash their rates by 30% (or even 15%) for those not paying through Apple?