A new ad-supported product for the Disney+ streaming service will be accessible beginning December 8, 2022, according to recent news from Disney (NYSE:DIS).
Disney+ Basic Same Price as Disney+, Hulu Price to Rise
The new Disney+ Basic subscription, which includes advertisements, will be $7.99 per month, the same price as Disney+. According to Disney, the ad-free subscription program will be known as Disney+ Premium and will cost $10.99 per month.
In addition, Disney is increasing the price of its Hulu subscription. The ad-supported tier will cost $7.99/month, up from $6.99, while the ad-free tier will go from $12.99/month to $14.99/month. The increased price is effective starting on October 10, 2022. In July, it was revealed that the monthly cost of ESPN+ streaming would increase from $6.99 to $9.99.
Users will pay $14.99 per month instead of $13.99 if they have a Disney+ membership with no ads and a Hulu and ESPN Plus subscription with ads. Disney is also launching a $9.99/month bundle that includes Disney+ and Hulu with advertising. Disney+, Hulu, and ad-supported ESPN+ will all cost $19.99 a month when purchased as a package.
Disney has altered the cost of its Hulu live TV bundles as well. Hulu’s live TV package costs $69.99 per month, which includes ad-supported Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ plans. The price of the live TV package, which includes ad-supported Hulu and ESPN+ subscriptions and ad-free Disney+, is $74.99. A live TV plan without commercials on Disney+ or Hulu and ad-supported ESPN+ will cost users $82.99/month.
Disney has more subscribers than Netflix, but will that continue?
Disney+ added 14.4 million new customers between April and June, bringing the total number of subscriptions for the streaming giant’s third fiscal quarter, which concluded on July 2, to 152.1 million. Most of the new subscribers are from countries other than North America. Only 100,000 of the 14.4 million new consumers came from North America.
With the three streaming platforms combined, Disney’s streaming services now have more than 221.1 million customers worldwide. The most recent improvements helped the business surpass Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX), which had 220.7 million customers at the end of the second quarter.
In response to rising subscription costs and dwindling viewership, Netflix will launch a new, lower-cost ad-supported subscription option in addition to its current ad-free basic, standard, and premium plans. To power its first ad-supported subscription product, the streaming behemoth is collaborating with Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT).
Selling advertisements on various services, including its Bing search engine and its business-focused social network, LinkedIn, the tech giant made $10 billion in ad income last year. At&T’s online advertising platform, Xandr, which enables advertisers to purchase ad space across thousands of websites and target demographics, was acquired by Microsoft last month.
The country’s most popular Netflix streaming package currently costs $15.50 a month. That comes after some fee increases to support its original programming, which became more crucial when Disney withdrew its programming and classic films from Netflix after the license agreements between the two businesses ran out.
With critically praised and well-liked episodes like Ted Lasso, Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) streaming service Apple TV+ keeps gaining popularity. Ted Lasso’s second season has received 20 nominations out of the 52 Emmy nominations that Apple TV+ has received this year. Severance, a different programme, has received 14 nominations overall in its first season.
Disney Incurred Losses in Q3
Increasing production and programming costs for Disney+ and increased sports programming expenditures at ESPN+ contributed to operating losses in the recently released fiscal third quarter. Disney is raising the price of ad-free subscriptions. Revenues from direct marketing to consumers rose 19% year over year to $5.1 billion, but operating losses increased by $0.8 billion to $1.1 billion. A bigger loss at Disney+, lower operating income at Hulu, and, to a lesser extent, a higher loss at ESPN+ were the causes of the increase in operating loss.
The company lowered its 2024 Disney+ subscriber prediction from 215 million to 245 million. By the end of fiscal 2024, it had previously predicted that there would be between 230 million and 260 million subscribers.
The latest adjustment resulted from lower expectations for India, where the corporation will no longer be able to stream cricket games from the Indian Premier League. Disney separated estimates for Disney+ Hotstar subscribers in India for the first time from the rest of Disney+.
In the third quarter of the company’s fiscal year, Disney+ Hotstar added 8.3 million new customers, bringing the total number of users in India and Southeast Asia to 58.4 million.
Disney’s shares are down more than 20% year-to-date.
Featured Image: Megapixl @Ralukatudor
