Disney is preparing to hit Disney+ subscribers with a double whammy of bad news: the price of the streaming service is increasing and a password-sharing crackdown is coming.
Disney+ Premium is set to increase in price from $10.99 to $13.99 per month starting Oct. 12, a 27% price hike. It’s a similar deal for Hulu subscribers, who will see their price rise from $14.99 to $17.99 per month (a 20% increase).
If you don’t mind ads, both the Disney+ and Hulu ad-supported tiers will remain at $7.99 per month, and the two bundled together (with ads) is staying at $9.99. A new bundle including Disney+ Premium and Hulu (No Ads) launches on Sept. 6 for $19.99 per month.
(Credit: Disney)
This is the second price hike for Disney in the last year. In December 2022, the standard Disney+ plan jumped from $7.99 to $10.99 per month or $109.99 per year. Hulu also increased $1 per month at that time, too. Like last year, it appears you can lock in the lower Disney+ rate until Oct. 12 if you head to disneyplus.com now.
If you’re someone who doesn’t pay for Disney+, but still watches the content by sharing a password, meanwhile, your days of free viewing are numbered. As The Wrap reports, Disney CEO Bob Iger confirmed during the company’s third-quarter earnings call yesterday that a password-sharing crackdown is planned for 2024.
“We are actively exploring ways to address account sharing and the best options for paying subscribers to share their accounts with friends and family,” Iger said. “Later this year, we will begin to update our subscriber agreements with additional terms and our sharing policies. And we will roll out tactics to drive monetization sometime in 2024.”
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Iger went on to say that account sharing is already being monitored. “I’m not gonna give you a specific number except to say it’s significant.”
Disney’s decision to crack down on password sharing has no doubt been guided by how it impacted Netflix subscribers numbers. There was no big exodus other than in Spain it seems, and it drove subscribers to the ad-supported version of the streaming service, but the crackdown is ongoing. It seems likely Disney will follow a similar set of rules as Netflix when deciding who can and can’t watch.
Beware the Netflix Password Crackdown
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