"Hey guys, it's time to get your own Disney+ account AND pay increased prices! Who's hyped?" That's basically the gist of what Disney expects its costumers to just accept. Hopping on the bandwagon that Netflix started, Disney's streaming service are going consumer unfriendly.
Until recently, Disney+ had been one of the few saving graces in the cruel world of streaming services. Relatively consistent prices, a good selection of shows and movies, Disney Originals and account sharing with friends arguably made Disney+ the most costumer friendly services out there.
But as Disney's revenue has struggled for quite some time now, CEO Bob Iger has decided it's time to "adjust" the business model. Here's all the changes coming to Disney+.
- If you need a free streaming service, maybe Amazon Prime's free-trial will help you out.
Disney+ Ups Prices And Bans Account Sharing
After last year's ad-free tier price increase by $3, costumers hoped that it would be a one-off price hike. After all, it was still worthwhile for the service they provided.
And who am I to tell Disney no? Seems like a horrible fate for Disney to only make a quarterly revenue of $22.3 billion when they aimed for $22.5 billion as CNN reports. I'd love to help out with that, Disney, why didn't you say something sooner?
The new pricing start in October 2023. The ad-free subscription will be at $13.99/month and the ad-free Hulu Bundle gets upped to $19.99. And, even worse, Iger announced that Disney would be looking into ways of ending password sharing. That's something they will tackle in 2024.
Annoyingly, that's something that Netflix did not too long ago and it actually worked out in its favor. Instead of a wave of protest cancellations after not being able to share their accounts anymore, Netflix added millions of new subscriptions.
- I need to admit though, Disney+ & Hulu are worth it for The Bear alone. What's up, season 3?
Because it worked for Netflix and profit's the only thing that's important in that regard, the new strategy could embolden other services to try it as well. Disney+ seems to be the first major player to follow-suit, but they won't be the last.
Good news, though: the ad-supported subscription will stay the same at $7.99.
And that seems to be the tactic behind the move: as streaming services become a big marketplace for advertisers, ad-supported models could end the revenue struggle. It seems to be less about getting more money out of existing costumers and more about getting more costumers into the ad-supported model, maybe even at the price of losing them in the ad-free tier.
Some distraction from the cruel world, maybe?