Price Increase: What to Expect from Disney+ and Hulu in the Future
This year, the two largest streaming platforms already want to milk even more money from their subscribers—although Amazon has gone about the same objective indirectly. Now the second wave of price increases is heading your way.
Streaming videos and films is an extremely popular form of entertainment. 83% of US households is subscribed to at least one streaming platform—in 2015, this figure stood at 52%. This means streaming has increasingly replaced traditional television, according to the analysis by Exploding Topics. In 36 percent of the cases, people watch videos from streaming services, while broadcast and cable television account for a good 52 percent.
Service providers appear to be increasingly looking to leverage the growing popularity to increase their sales beyond growth figures alone. Netflix increased the price of its individual subscriptions significantly at the beginning of the year. For instance, the price of the most basic subscription, which also includes advertising, rose from $6.99 to $7.99. The premium subscription saw a $2 increase from $22.99 to $24.99.
Amazon is also trying to increase its Prime Video sales regardless of whether the streaming service can attract new users. However, the company is taking a more subtle approach: Instead of increasing its subscription fees, it announced that the frequency of advertisements will be increased significantly.
More Money for the House of Mouse
Now, two other major streaming service providers are following suit—Hulu and Disney+. While the former will only increase the price of its subscription with ads by $2 from $10.99 to $12.99 on October 21, Disney+ will ravenously increase the price of its standard package, with and without ads, simultaneously. The fact that both streaming service providers are adjusting their prices at the same time is hardly surprising. There is close cooperation between them as Hulu subscribers can also access Disney+ in the bundle.
For the streaming service provider, which is part of the Disney Group, the subscription, which also comes with advertising, will see a $2 price increase from $9.99 to $11.99. This corresponds to an increase of 20 percent! The ad-free package will also be more expensive soon with another $3 premium added to the existing price, resulting in an $18.99 monthly fee which is almost 19 percent more!
The price increases are high when you consider how the subscription fees for the two packages already saw a considerable increase last year . Before the last round of price increase approximately a year back, the basic subscription with advertising still cost $7.99. The price for the ad-free subscription rose from $13.99 to $15.99 dollars then.
