Mar 25, 2021

Starting tomorrow, Disney+ subscribers in the US will pay a 14% price increase each month

Steel yourselves, Americans: Disney+ is getting its first price hike. Tomorrow, the monthly subscription cost will rise from $7 to $8, an increase of 14%.

An annual subscription will now cost $80, not $70. Meanwhile, the Disney+ bundle, which includes Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+, is rising from $13 to $14; the ad-free version will cost $19. The price increase was first announced at Disney's Investor Day in December.

Grumbling U.S. subscribers can take comfort from the fact that other territories have it worse. The price in Canada recently jumped by 33% from $9 to $12 (CAD). In the U.K., it went up by the same proportion, from £6 to £8. Europeans have seen their bills go from €7 to €9, an increase of 29%.

For an ad-free streamer, Disney+ is still competitively priced. Netflix subscriptions start at $9, with the popular standard tier coming in at $14. Amazon Prime costs $13 (although that covers many other shopping benefits), and HBO Max is $15. Only Apple TV+, which has a far smaller library of content, is cheaper, at $5.

On the other hand, Disney+ faces stiffening competition from ad-supported streamers. Peacock charges nothing for its basic tier and $5 for premium with ads ($10 without ads). Paramount+, which (like Peacock) launched after Disney+, costs $6 without ads, and that will drop to $5 in June.

Earlier this month, Disney announced that its streaming service had crossed 100 million subscribers (although roughly one-third of those are Disney+ Hotstar customers). Having initially forecast 60–90 million subscribers by the end of 2024, the company has revised its target to 230–260 million.