Disney Plus was launched in November 2019 for high demand and quickly became one of the largest streaming services for subscribers in the United States.
Angela Lang / CNET
Disney Plus is raising its price by $ 1 for a $ 8 per month subscription in the U.S. starting on Friday, with its annual subscription rising from $ 10 to $ 80 per year. And the discounted Disney package that packs Disney Plus, Hulu and ESPN Plus together will also increase $ 1 in the U.S.: People with the ad-supported Hulu package will see their bills rise to $ 14 a month, and those with the latest ad-free Hulu package will start paying $ 20.
The price increases, announced in December, will begin to appear for existing subscribers on their first bill on Friday or later. They also apply to Disney Plus globally, not just in the U.S. The increases in other countries are almost the same as in the US, only in local currencies. For example, in continental Europe, prices are rising from two euros to nine euros a month.
So if you are not yet a Disney Plus subscriber and want to get an annual subscription that is $ 10 cheaper than it will be tomorrow, today is the day to sign up. (The Disney Plus / Hulu / ESPN Plus package does not offer annual plans.) If you sign up today for a monthly subscription to the Disney Plus or package, you will save a dollar for a month of service, but the higher rates will take effect in your next billing cycle.
“These price increases reflect an increase in the underlying value of the Disney Plus product offering,” said Christine McCarthy, Disney’s chief financial officer, in December, when the company announced the plan.
By comparison, Netflix’s most popular plan costs $ 14 a month, after the streaming giant increased its own prices earlier this year. The cheapest tier from Netflix costs $ 9, and its premium package – which offers benefits like 4K resolution, HDR image quality and the ability to stream on four devices at the same time (benefits that Disney Plus offers by default) – costs $ 18 a month.
The easing of prices occurs at a time when Disney Plus proved to be the great success of the so-called streaming wars, a period in the last year and a half when apparently all the major media companies (and some technology companies) have launched their own services. streaming to take on the likes of Netflix. Disney Plus has signed up for more than 100 million subscribers, far surpassing all new competitors from Apple, HBO, NBCUniversal, Discovery, ViacomCBS and others. A media analyst called Disney Plus “one of the greatest product launches of all time. ”
The solid foundation of Disney Plus also spurred the company to remove its seven days free trials for new members, starting last June.
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