Disney+ will be raising its prices. From December 8th, subscription in the US will be increasing from $7.99 to $10.99. Since that’s a significant rise, Disney will keep the $7.99 tier but supported with Ads. There will therefore be two tiers:
- Disney+ Premium
- Disney+ Basic
Yes, that sounds very much like something else: Netflix. A company that has lost millions of subscribers lately thanks to increased prices, and weird subscription tiers – including an upcoming Ad-supported tier coming soon.
However, unlike Netflix, Disney+ has grown quite significantly in the short period of time it has existed. The streaming platform added 14.4 million subscribers in quarter three rising to a total of 153 million subscribers. In the same quarter Netflix lost close to 1 million subscribers.
Disney+’s move is quite interesting though. Especially given their growth trajectory. How will they be perceived by the current and potential customers? Although $10.99 is still way cheaper than $19.99. And each tier still offers the same content at full quality.
Prices for both Hulu and ESPN will also be going up. The Disney+ bundle which includes Hulu and ESPN will also be going up for the bundle with ads. However, the bundle without ads remains $19.99, same as Netflix premium.
On the ad-supported tier, Disney+ says adverts will be limited to an average of four minutes of commercials an hour. That’s better than YouTube, yeah? Which makes me want to see what Netflix will be doing with their upcoming ad tier.
The move by Disney+ will be good news for Netflix though. This is because they can use it as justification for their pricing, and for their plans to bring an ad tier.
