Disney Is Increasing Streaming Prices – Again

Disney is once again increasing the price of all of its streaming services. Disney owns some of the biggest streaming services in the world, like Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN, which gives them control over some of the most in-demand content on the planet. While Disney raised its streaming prices in October 2023, they are now looking to increase them almost a year later, joining a wave of other streaming services raising their prices.

According to Variety, Disney is increasing the price on all standalone tiers of Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+, which will start on October 17. The recently announced Disney+/Hulu/Max combo will not change, and the Disney+/Hulu no-ads bundle will remain at $19.99 a month. Regarding the price increase, the company said, “With this growing offering and new ways to enjoy your favorite Disney+ content, Disney subscription plans remain among the best values in streaming today.” See the full breakdown in prices below.

Streaming Inflation

Summer 2024 has seen many trends, including streaming inflation. In late December 2023, heading into the new year, Prime Video announced customers would have to pay extra to skip ads. In June 2024, Max announced it was raising the price of its ad-free service from $15.99 to $16.99. Ahead of its 2024 Summer Olympic coverage, Peacock raised prices in July 2024. Paramount+’s $1 price increase will go into effect in August 2024. Netflix, has been the worst offender as the streaming service has increased its subscription fees once a year since the onset of the pandemic, with the company recently announcing it was canceling its lowest-priced ad-free subscription plan of $11.9, with the cheapest ad-free versions being the $15.49 monthly standard HD video quality plan and a $22.99 premium Ultra HD plan.

Disney+ is the latest streaming service to raise its prices, and this comes amid a wave of frustration among consumers, not only because of rising inflation. When Disney+ first launched in 2019, the original plan with no ads was $6.99. That means that in the five years since it launched, that basic service has climbed $9. Yet, it is cheaper than Max and a better deal than Netflix’s Ultra HD plan, as they make you pay more for a feature with Disney+. Disney has been criticized heavily for increasing the prices on many of its services, particularly in the theme parks, as the infamous Genie+ service that put the previously free Fast Pass system behind a paywall was recently canceled.

While the idea is that these companies need to continue to grow in profit, at some point, a limit will come, and as more people become more careful about their spending, the streaming services they subscribe to will come into question. Disney+ certainly has a firm hold on the public because they have beloved brands like Star Wars, Marvel, Pixar, and the classic Disney library that make them a must-have for families, while Hulu offers many of the most critically acclaimed television series on the air. Yet the fact that there are bundles of these services, including with competitors like Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max, shows that the world is seemingly moving back to the cable model of bundling platforms – an approach streaming was believed to have killed in the 2010s.