Media giant Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS) announced price increases for its Disney+ and Hulu streaming platforms. With the rate increases, here's a look at how Disney+ compares to other streaming platforms.
What Happened: Disney is raising the prices of its streaming platforms for the third time in three years, adding to the higher costs consumers now see when subscribing to multiple services.
Disney last raised prices in October 2023 and October 2024 and will put new prices into effect on Oct. 21, 2025. Here is a look at the new prices, with the previous prices listed in parentheses.
- Disney+ with ads: $11.99 ($9.99)
- Disney+ premium without ads: $18.99 ($15.99)
- Hulu with ads: $11.99 ($9.99)
- Hulu without ads: $18.99 ($18.99, no change)
- ESPN Select (formerly ESPN+): $12.99 ($11.99)
Multiple Disney+ bundles are also going up in price.
With the new changes, here is a look at how Disney+ stacks up to the competition in the streaming space when looking at monthly plans from Netflix Inc (NASDAQ:NFLX), Paramount+ from Paramount Skydance (NASDAQ:PSKY), HBO Max from Warner Bros. Discovery (NASDAQ:WBD), Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Peacock from Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSA).
- Netflix with ads: $7.99
- Netflix without ads: $17.99
- Paramount+ with ads: $5.99
- Paramount+ without ads: $11.99
- HBO Max with ads: $9.99
- HBO Max without ads: $16.99
- AppleTV+ without ads (no ad-free plan yet): $12.99
- Peacock with ads: $7.99
- Peacock without ads: $16.99
With its price increase, Disney+ will now have the most expensive ad-supported plan of the plans listed above. The company's ad-free plan will also be the most expensive of the plans tracked above.
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What's Next: Disney's price increases are likely not the last in the sector and could push the limits on how many plans subscribers pay for monthly.
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav hinted at price increases recently.
“The fact that this is quality -- and that’s true across our company, motion picture, TV production and streaming quality -- we all think that gives us a chance to raise price,” Zaslav said, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter.
The comments from Zaslav came at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology Conference. Zaslav also said there are “too many players in the market” when talking about television.
“We think we’re way underpriced.”
Apple raised its prices from $9.99 to $12.99 in August, marking one of the more recent price increases. The company has not introduced an ad-supported plan yet, but one has been rumored for some time.
Surveys done by Benzinga and others have shown that consumers believe they are paying too much for streaming and they would cancel plans if the costs get too high.
In March, a Deloitte survey found that the average household was spending $69 per month on streaming, up 13% year-over-year, with the average household having four streaming platform subscriptions.
In the survey, 47% of consumers said they pay too much for streaming, with 41% saying the content on platforms doesn’t justify the costs. Additionally, 60% of consumers in the poll said they would cancel their plans if the price were increased by $5 or more per month.
Most streamers have stayed away from hiking prices too much, with most increases coming in the $1 to $3 range per month.
Future subscriber figures for Disney and others could show if consumers are embracing the costs, trading down to ad-supported plans or cancelling the number of streaming platforms they subscribe.
Consumers can also pay for annual memberships in many cases and save on the overall costs.
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