Ad-free viewing is getting more expensive

Fans of the Disney+ original series Loki who want to keep up with the Time Variance Authority without ads will soon see a variance in their monthly streaming bills.

Beginning Thursday, Disney’s ad-free plan will cost subscribers $13.99 a month, up $3 from its prior price of $10.99, although ad-supported viewing on Disney+ will remain $7.99. It’s the second such price hike in less than a year’s time; in December 2022, the cost of watching Disney+ without ads increased $3 from $7.99 per month to $10.99 per month, when the service’s ad-supported tier debuted.

The new sticker price for Disney+, which the company first said was coming in August , is the latest price increase affecting ad-free viewing in the streaming ecosystem. Disney-owned Hulu is also raising the prices of its ad-free tier this week, from $14.99 to $17.99 a month, while earlier this month, Discovery+ increased the cost of watching without ads from $6.99 a month to $8.99 a month. Other streamers, like Max and Peacock, have also made it pricier to watch ad-free this year.

And other streamers are mulling over future increases, including Netflix, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Ad on: The price hikes stand to boost further adoption of ad-supported tiers on various streamers, which remain less expensive. Executives have been open about the pricing strategy as a way to boost their ads business, which is considered to be a more lucrative way to monetize viewers than relying on subscription fees alone. “We’re obviously trying, with our pricing strategy, to migrate more subs to the advertiser supported tier,” Disney CEO Bob Iger told investors earlier this year.

But the price hikes aren’t just affecting ad-free viewing. In June, Paramount+ raised the price of its ad-supported plan by $1, from $4.99 a month to $5.99 a month, while Peacock’s price increases affected both ad-supported and ad-free viewing.

Keep watching: The price increases come at a critical time for streamers, which are aiming to increase profitability, and for consumers, who are spending less overall on streaming services amid economic pressure, according to data from research firm Parks Associates.

One big question as prices go up is whether subscribers opt to churn on and off of services to save money, which would affect streaming revenues. Already, the churn rate on video streaming services sits at 47%, according to Parks Associates.