Although Disney has been involved with Hulu for a long time, the Mouse House fully entered the streaming game with Disney+ on November 12, 2019. With Disney+ shows like The Mandalorian, Loki and High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, and Disney+ movies like Lady and the Tramp, the latest Cheaper by the Dozen remake and Secret Society of Second-Born Royals, just clicks away, this streaming service has been available ad-free to users for $7.99 per month, but that will soon change. We’ve known for a while that a cheaper, ad-supported version of Disney+ is on the way, but new details have arrived revealing that won’t really be that cheap.
Disney has announce that Disney+ ad-supported plan will launch on December 8, and that will cost $7.99 per month. For those who want to stick to keep their Disney+ subscription ad-free, this tier, which will be called Disney+ Premium, will cost you an additional $3, i.e. $10.99 per month. Additionally, it was revealed that starting on October 10, Hulu with ads will increase from $6.99 a month to $7.99 a month, and the ad-free tier will increase from $12.99 a month to $14.99 a month. For those of you subscribed to ESPN+, that’s increasing from $6.99 a month to $9.99 a month.
Price increases have come to be expected from streaming services, and this isn’t even the first time Disney+ has delivered a price hike, as it originally started out at $6.99 a month. Still, the fact that the current ad-free price is only a few months away from becoming what you’ll need to shell out simply to watch programming on the platform with the inclusion of ads is a big move. Kareem Daniel, the chairman of Disney Media & Entertainment Distribution, said the following about the Disney+ price changes in an official statement (via THR):
With our new ad-supported Disney+ offering and an expanded lineup of plans across our entire streaming portfolio, we will be providing greater consumer choice at a variety of price points to cater to the diverse needs of our viewers and appeal to an even broader audience.
So for those of you who are on Disney+, you have basically four months to decide if you want stick with your current monthly price and get used to watching ads in the middle of the platform’s programming (though there are some rules about the kind of commercials that will be shown on Disney+), or if you’re willing to pay an extra $3 to keep up with the ad-free experience. Or maybe some will decide they’re just not interested in Disney+ and unsubscribe from the service. In any case, as the streaming landscape changes and deals with various ups and downs, it’s become necessary for Disney+ to increase its prices a bit in order to keep delivering content to subscribers.
Keeping our gaze on the immediate future, Disney+ originals arriving in the coming months include She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, Andor, Willow, the live-action Pinocchio remake, Hocus Pocus 2 and Disenchanted. CinemaBlend will continue sharing new information on the projects and everything else the Mouse House’s streaming service has coming up.
