Disney is raising prices on its streaming services, and an increase in prices for its theme parks could be close behind.
Starting Dec. 8, Disney+ will cost $10.99 per month, up from $7.99. According to TechCrunch, this coincides with the streaming service’s new ad-supported plan, “Disney+ Basic,” priced at $7.99 per month.
Hulu is also raising its prices, Disney said. Starting in October, the ad-supported plan will cost $7.99 per month, a $1 increase, while the ad-less option will cost $14.99 per month, an additional $2.
This news comes after the company announced last month that it will be raising the price of ESPN+ from $6.99 per month to $9.99 per month, in hopes of making this streaming service profitable, as I previously reported.
On Thursday, Disney CEO Bob Chapek told CNBC that a price hike for theme parks is also likely as long as people keep visiting in such high numbers.
“We read demand. We have no plans right now in terms of what we’re going to do, but we operate with a surgical knife here,” Chapek said. “It’s all up to the consumer. If consumer demand keeps up, we’ll act accordingly. If we see a softening, which we don’t think we’re going to see, then we can act accordingly as well.”
According to The Verge, Disney found huge success in the last quarter, adding 8 million new subscribers to Disney+ around the same time that Netflix lost close to a million subscribers.
The third quarter came with an additional 14.4 million new users, although the company reported that the operating loss increased from $0.8 billion to $1.1 billion “due to a higher loss at Disney+, lower operating income at Hulu and, to a lesser extent, a higher loss at ESPN+,” the report stated.
“We remain confident that Disney+ will achieve profitability in fiscal 2024,” Disney CFO Christine McCarthy said.