Disney plans a streaming price increase—again

Disney+ may be losing streaming subscribers, but it’s hoping to make more money on the customers who stick around.

On Wednesday, the media giant—which lost around 11.7 million subscribers in the three months ending July 1, primarily in India—announced another round of price increases for the ad-free tiers of both Disney+ and Hulu:

• Beginning in October , Disney+’s ad-free tier will jump from $10.99 a month to $13.99 a month.
• Hulu’s ad-free tier will increase from $14.99 to $17.99 a month.
• The ad-supported versions of Disney+ and Hulu, meanwhile, will each remain $7.99; a bundled version of the two services’ ad-supported tiers will stay at $9.99. An additional ad-free bundle of Disney+ and Hulu will cost $19.99.

All adding up: Disney is looking to capitalize on advertisers’ growing interest in streaming ads as it aims to shrink its streaming losses. “We’re obviously trying, with our pricing strategy, to migrate more subs to the advertiser supported tier,” CEO Bob Iger said on a call with analysts Wednesday. In other advertising news, the company announced it will debut ad-supported tiers of Disney+ in Canada and in some European markets beginning November 1.

• 40% of new Disney+ subscribers are opting for the service’s ad-supported tier, Iger said, and growing the ad-supported base helps improve average revenue per unit, interim CFO Kevin Lansberry added.
• Though the company has seen three straight quarters of subscriber losses, by Q4, it expects that Disney+ net subscriber additions will once again pick back up, Lansberry added.

Be up front: On Tuesday, Disney announced it had closed its 2023 upfront discussions, securing overall sales volume that was in line with last year’s commitments. More than 40% of total upfront commitments were for streaming and digital, the company said.

On password-sharing: The company may soon follow in Netflix’s footsteps when it comes to cracking down on shared passwords. “We’re actively exploring ways to address account sharing, and the best options for paying subscribers to share their accounts with friends and family,” Iger told investors. “Later this year, we will begin to update our subscriber agreements with additional terms on our sharing policies, and we will roll out tactics to drive monetization sometime in 2024.”