Disney just announced today the increase of the subscription price of Disney+ from $7.99 to $10.99 monthly as they launch the ad-supported plan starting on the 8th of December this year. The company announced the plan and hike five months ago but with no further information such as launch date, pricing, etc.
According to The Verge, as per Disney CEO Bob Chapek, the upcoming plan still ensures a great viewing experience despite the ads as it will offer a "lower ad load and frequency" for the subscribers. Disney's original plan earlier this year was to maintain the ads breaks down to four minutes per hour. Together with this is their plan to remove the ads for the kids' profiles and shows that cater to preschool audiences.
Bundled Plans to Increase as well
The increase will also take effect on Disney's subsidiaries, Hulu and ESPN+, earlier than the Disney+ launch date. From the monthly subscription that costs $12.99, Hulu increases their ad-free plan to $14.99, while the ad-supported tier will cost $7.99 and will be in effect this upcoming October. ESPN+ also announced a $3 hike in their subscription last July, taking their price to $9.99 per month.
As per Gizmodo, the Disney+, Hulu, & ESPN+ Bundle will now increase from $13.99 to $14.99 ($19.99 if purchasing the ad-free subscription), while the Hulu and Disney+ Bundle will now cost $9.99 monthly.
230-260 million Disney Plus Subscribers by 2024
TechCrunch reported that as of Disney's first quarter of 2022 earnings, Disney's goal is to have 230-260 million subscribers by 2024. By launching ad-supported tiers that are much cheaper than the regular plans, it might help the company to reach its goal, hence the lowered forecast of 215-245 million subscribers that were announced on the same day.
Only last month (June 14), 50 countries were added to Disney+ expansion, including countries from Africa, West Asia, and Europe, as they aimed to expand their services globally. Compared to Netflix, Disney+ is slowly catching up to its competitor as Netflix is available in more than 190 countries.
Netflix as Disney+'s Competitor
Despite Netflix's advantage of having more countries to avail of their services, Disney+ garnered 14.4 million subscribers in the 3rd Quarter of the year, a much better result as they were just expecting a 10 million mark. The company now has 152.1 million subscribers.
According to a report last July, Netflix has been losing its subscribers based on their quarterly earnings. They have recorded the largest quarterly loss by losing 970,000 subscribers. Netflix has also been planning on launching an ad-supported tier earlier next year.
Although Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos has confirmed that the content that they will be offering in the plan will be limited. "There are some things that don't - that we're in conversation about with the studios on - but if we launched the product today, the members in the ad tier would have a great experience.We will clear some additional content, but certainly not all of it, but we don't think it's a material holdback to the business," he stated.
Related Article: Why Netflix Loses Subscribers? Largest Quarterly Loss Shows More Than 900,000 Users Unsubscribed
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Written by Inno Flores
