Disney Plus increases prices from tomorrow

Disney Plus is increasing its price by $ 1 to a subscription of $ 8 per month in the United States starting Friday, with its annual subscription increasing from $ 10 to $ 80 per year. And the discounted Disney bundle that includes Disney plus, Hulu and ESPN Plus together will also increase by $ 1 in the US: People with the plan that includes ad-supported Hulu will see their bills increase to $ 14 per month, and those with the new plan that includes Hulu without ads will start. pay $ 20.

The price increases, announced in December, will start showing up for existing subscribers in their first bill on or after Friday. They also apply to Disney Plus around the world, not just the United States. The increases in other countries are roughly equivalent to those in the United States, only in local currency. For example, in continental Europe, prices increase by two to nine euros per month.

So if you’re not yet a Disney Plus subscriber and want to lock in an annual subscription that’s $ 10 cheaper than tomorrow, today is signup day. (The Disney Plus / Hulu / ESPN Plus plan does not offer annual plans.) If you sign up for a monthly Disney Plus membership or package today, you’ll save money for one month of service. , but the higher rates will apply to your next billing cycle.

“These price increases reflect an increase in the underlying value of the Disney Plus product offering,” Christine McCarthy, Disney’s chief financial officer, said in December when the company announced the plan.

By comparison, Netflix’s most popular plan costs $ 14 per month, after streaming giant increased its own prices earlier this year. Netflix’s cheapest tier is $ 9, and its premium plan – which unlocks perks like 4K resolution, HDR picture quality, and the ability to stream to four devices at the same time (perks offered by Disney Plus as standard) – costs $ 18 per month.

The pricing flexibility comes as Disney Plus turned out to be the remarkable success of the so-called streaming war, a period over the past year and a half when apparently all of the major media companies (and some tech companies) have deployed their own streaming services to meet the likes of Netflix. Disney Plus has signed more than 100 million subscribers, far surpassing all of the new competitors of Apple, HBO, NBCUniversal, Discovery, ViacomCBS and others. A media analyst called Disney Plus “one of the the biggest product launches of all time. ”

Disney Plus’ strong footing also prompted the company to cut its seven days free trials for new members, from last June.