Walt Disney Co. is again boosting the prices of many of its streaming offerings as it faces pressure from Wall Street to improve the financials of its direct-to-consumer media offerings.
Starting Oct. 12, subscribers will have to pay $13.99 a month for ad-free Disney+, up 27% from the $10.99 monthly fee that the company currently charges and which itself was a relatively fresh price announced last summer. The price of ad-supported Disney+ is standing put at $7.99 a month.
See more: Disney posts smaller streaming loss, will hike prices for Disney+ and Hulu
Disney
DIS,
is also boosting the monthly price of ad-free Hulu to $17.99 from $14.99, with the new fee marking a 20% increase. Hulu’s ad-supported option will still cost $7.99 a month.
Hulu + Live TV, which combines Hulu with live television offerings, will start costing $76.99 a month for the ad-supported offering and $89.99 a month for the ad-free version. That’s up from current monthly fees of $69.99 and $82.99, respectively.
Further, the company plans to charge $10.99 a month for ESPN+ with ads, up from $9.99 a month currently.
Additionally, Disney is adding a new bundle while tweaking another. The new Duo Premium bundle, which combines ad-free Disney+ and Hulu, will cost $19.99 a month, with availability beginning Sept. 6.
Meanwhile, the company’s Trio Basic plan, which brings together ad-supported Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+, will start costing $14.99 each month, up from $12.99 a month before.
Opinion: Disney shows streaming wars are destroying all that was good about streaming
Whereas media companies were once in a race to lure subscribers, now they’re a lot more focused on the economics of their streaming businesses. Disney announced an earlier round of price increases about a year ago, and executives teased this latest round of price hikes on the last earnings call. Netflix Inc.
NFLX,
raised its own prices last year, and the company is currently in the midst of a crackdown on account sharing that’s also mean to boost revenue.
Elsewhere, in audio, Spotify Technology SA
SPOT,
unveiled a price hike of its own in late July, following a similar move by Apple Inc.
AAPL,
last fall with Apple Music. Apple upped the cost of its Apple TV+ streaming service in October as well.
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