Discussion
How can Disney justify how much its prices have increased since inception compared to other streaming services???
There have been six price increases over seven years, with their price rising 200% since inception. I mean, this is crazy. I don’t think their library has expanded nearly enough to justify the change and, in fact, it seems like they offer way less original titles than any other streaming service. This is getting out of control
Yeah. For context, in 2019, the year shown for Disney+, a standard Netflix tier, which got you HD content on 2 screens, was $12.99. Disney came in with their entire catalog for half the price.
Netflix launched way before 2016 so the chart doesn't even make sense. But yeah, Disney was definitely very aggressive on their pricing to get marketshare.
I think it’s wild to think that “the Disney vault” was still a thing less than a decade ago. That you either owned the movie, or you waited for it to be released again. And when that was, you never knew. Now I can throw on The Lion King for my kids anytime.
Correct! The percentage increase is not really a valid argument, they started at a crazy low price. It is crazy that they’re now slightly more expensive than the others, but they’ve also paid a lot of money to acquire massive franchises like Star Wars and Marvel, so perhaps that’s the reason.
And part of it was they genuinely thought things would work out with those prices.
Part of it was they all assumed if they built the services they'd pull in as many subscribers as Netflix did. They did not - Netflix still hasan advantage of almost 100 million subscribers over their competitors
Another part was how much of a mess this decade has been for them all - no one could have anticipated COVID, or the dual writer and actor strikes.
The end result was income was never as high as they hoped, but the cost to make material went way, WAY up regardless. And here we are now.
Netflix @ $19.99 and MAX @ $18.49 are the prices for no-ads but limited to 1080p.
Disney @ $21.49 is the price for no-ads and 4K Dolby streaming.
If comparing like for like, Netflix goes up to $26.99 per month and MAX goes up to $22.99 per month, both outpacing Disney.
I would also add that you have the option of doing Disney/Hulu Duo w/ No Ads and 4K Dolby for just $21.99 per month which, why wouldn't you pay the extra $0.50 to get Hulu added onto your subscription? Two different streaming libraries in 4K Dolby for less than either of the competitors you mentioned, Netflix or MAX, when comparing like for like.
On top of that, your Netflix cost for launch seems incorrect. It was actually first included for free, if you were part of their monthly DVD subscription, and the first standalone streaming launched at $7.99 per month.
Similarly, your MAX launch price is incorrect as well, but also depends which 'iteration' you are referring to, as MAX had gone through re-branding multiple times. HBO Go was the first streaming service, included for free with your HBO cable subscription. HBO Now followed as their standalone streaming offering, and if you signed up prior to launch, it was $11.99 per month, after which it raised to $14.99 per month. It was re-branded to HBO Max which launched at $14.99 per month, and finally rebranded into MAX which launched at $9.99 per month.
In regards as to why Disney+ has gone up so much, it really is just that when they first launched, their library was extremely limited/niche and it would have been nearly impossible for them to launch at $9.99-$14.99 and be competitive. Launching at $6.99 allowed them to get their foot in the door at a lot of households, and then increase their pricing as their library/offering expanded.
They assume a lot of the people who get it are trapped in it because they have families and it's cheaper than going to the movies and so far they aren't wrong.
Right now storage costs are pretty high though. So the upfront costs of standing one up are high. I say that as someone who has run Jellyfin, Audiobookshelf, etc for years.
I think you could probably cobble together something useful for your kids who will watch the same stuff over, and will not be too worried about lower quality content... But absolutely it's a rough time to start from scratch...
One of those many yay to being child free. No more Disney+ meanwhile my best friend has 2 kids and was using my account. Once I cancelled she had to get one.
FWIW I suspect that Netflix has to support A LOT more users, simultaneous connections, etc.. I’m just saying that might be a way they have chosen to reduce load on everything. Or it’s just a fleecing, but I’m a computer programmer, so I’m biased I suppose.
Yeah that's the thing and why I don't think the OP post is all that accurate since he comparing against the standard HBO and Netflix that don't even offer 4K or HDR unless you pay extra.
I have Disney+ and Hulu already - wanted to get the bundle to add HBO. The bundle isn't available to me unless I cancel services for an indefinite amount of time (60 days? 90 days?)
True, especially if you ever had the pleasure of sitting through a movie on Netflix or Amazon free with ads. I get Disney prices are high but at least they don’t pull the Bs Netflix “Ultimate Plan” with no ads and family can’t stream in their own location unless they pay 6 dollars plus .
I was about to say the same, it bundles multiple big services. Whether you choose Hulu and HBO or Hulu and ESPN. Netflix on the other hand doesn’t bundle a damn thing. All you get it Standard with adds, or higher tiers with better streaming quality, no adds and streaming across multiple devices. If I didn’t get a discount on Netflix through T-Mobile I probably would’ve dropped them already.
“Back in the day”… you know the price of satellite and cable tv has been insane for a long time now right? You can’t really make a case by saying “back in the 90s cable tv only cost $40/mo!”
No, I was thinking 2013 when we started veering away from cable because it was cheaper to go with a streamer. Now the price has equalized to basically the same amount we departed that system for.
My family’s cable bill with Charter was like $230…. Including phone internet and cable. And the internet portion was only $50. Do you think my landline portion was $140? Because it was $29.99.
Shit. I didn't know. Thanks. That actually seems like a decent deal for all the services content. I'll look into and sub for a month or two and then unsub for awhile again like guy above said. Smart play.
The chart isn’t exactly correct as Netflix and Max made changes to what their plans offer, while Disney didn’t (primarily the removal of 4K from their standard plans).
The launch “standard” plan for HBO Max, for example, is equivalent to the HBO Max Premium plan now as they removed 4K, Atmos, etc. from the standard plan.
As for Netflix, the same situation with their original
Plan being equivalent to their Premium tier today. They also launched at $7.99 and the equivalent plan today is $26.99 making it a 238% increase
Because out of all of them, Disney can use all of its own content to fill almost the entire site. Between their movies (both live action & animated), tv shows (regular Disney & Disney jr, etc) and their acquisition of Hulu, ABC, Marvel, Lucasfilm…
These are properties people want to watch & can’t get anywhere else. Especially the kids stuff. They have people over a barrel and they know it.
You make the decision whether it’s worth it or not.
The intro 3 years for $120 was a low barrier to entry, as they say in business terms. Once they got all the subscribers on the platform and hooked with their favorites, watchlists, and datapoints.. they lifted the barrier of entry. So people inside now feel trapped without any option.
the reality is that the exit sign for fire escape is right there.. just stop paying. Stop subscribing. stop using mental gymnastics to justify.
“But I love Disney and streaming so much! I can’t let it go”
There are other means to streaming if you know where to look.
For the same price you can bundle in hulu and disney+ (they are trying to show investors positive growth on both platforms forcing everyone to go "eh, i guess ill get both")
If you add 10 bucks you get hulu disney plus and hbo. Making it pretty strong. 10 bucks per streaming platform. If you use all 3.
So the ad free tier of Disney is their highest price point. This post lacks context because Netflix's tier that is equal to Disney is 26.99 and HBO Max is 22.99. Also, number of originals doesnt equate to quality.
They give a big D+ credit on their new credit card. Enough to offset the annual fee on the card. I wonder if they are hoping the price rises will drive people to the new card.
I always assumed the US Hulu has a lot more on it than say the Canadian one. But I'm not sure if that's true TBH. In Canada the stuff that became Hulu branded seemed to be all the same stuff that was already on there, just now branded to Hulu (like it always was in the US). But I think all the extra/other stuff that was Hulu in the States is still unavailable here? Again though not 100% sure as I've never looked into it that deep. And obviously no idea about other countries either.
I like Disney plus I'm just surprised they don't be pumping out original content like HBO to justify these price increases I get not matching Netflix pace nobody has but they sitting on some fat IP Lol
This is America, and it's all about the billionaires and grifters now. And they will never, ever have enough. So they don't need to justify anything. We're all just gonna keep being charged more and more until eventually we can afford nothing leisurely and America is nothing but billionares and poors. And then they will have to try to figure out new ways to extract what few remaining pennies we have.
They started insanely cheap for what they were offering. And now they’re probably overcharging for what they are offering. It’s a matter of perception and what you consider worth it. Me personally, it is getting out of hand and has become less necessary to be a sub subscriber year after year. It is now in my sometimes on sometimes off rotation, depending what I wanna see.
I think when they launched they set price very low as a strategy.
I canceled last night and got a $17/mo retention offer for 3 months so I took it. I will look for an annual subscription if I can save at all after that point.
I barely go to movies anymore. I like their Gilmore Girls, Hulu library, Pixar, Star Wars and Disney classics.
I subscribed when it was first released and canceled my membership after the most recent price hike.
I’ve started buying BluRays again so that my kid can watch those and I’ll only ever get a subscription to D+ for a single month at a time if there’s something specific we want to watch.
Netflix set the standard, that they can raise prices and make the service worse, and not lose a significant enough portion of subscribers to change. They also started aggressively pushing the ad tier over ad free as well as cracking down on password sharing. Disney isn't an ethical corporation either, but I get a solid deal for Disney and Hulu without ads, and it's in 4K, where Netflix wants nearly $30 a month for 4K access, and HBO Max wants you to subscribe just to them for 4K, since if you subscribe through a cable package, it's capped at 1080p. Prime Video also seems to be on that road of making 4K a premium feature and forcing in ads.
The launch price was never intended to be anything but a short term promo. They started at a low price to get people interested then once you're in they can change the price and many people will keep the service because its easier than finding alternatives.
Because they started off with just a fraction of their own catalog, and started at a cheaper price than the others. Now they have their full catalog, and things from other places.
And as long as people feel they can’t do without it (toddler will be a screaming mess unless they watch frozen 12 times a day. Parents feel they can only trust Disney with kids entertainment & not other studios. DC keeps dropping the ball to make competition for Marvel. ABC seems to be the only reliable 24/hr streaming news & is often free on Roku, etc) then nothing will change. Same with park prices & everything. As long as Disney adults & fans can’t live without it, & nervous parents have toddlers who need distraction this is our future. Supply & demand. Because of the Disney premium we haven’t come close to the break point yet. Many have fallen off, yes. And that number grows every day. But we haven’t hit the number where stockholders notice yet.
I think the justification is you adults will cycle through various streaming services and have no problem cancelling one when it gets too expensive, but you’ll never hear the end of it if you cancel the one your kids watch.
Isn't dolus price include 4k and multiple streams while Netflix is not 4k and has less sino streams. So not direct comparison given the quality and number of streams
Why do you think Disney+ operating costs are any less than Netflix's? Plus their historical and newer IP is way more proven than Netflix's. Especially for family/kid stuff. Bluey alone probably maintains many subscriptions.
Aside from that people continue to pay for the service dispute the price hikes. They can charge $100 a month and your still gonna pay for it. After a year of that they'll raise it to $120 and your groan but fork over the cash, eventually they'll get it to $500 and you'll still pay.
People won't stop paying for it so they'll keep raising the price.
Man I remember accidentally buying 4 annual plans at $70/each because my transaction kept failing, only to hit all at once. Was annoyed at first BUT I swapped to Verizon Play More that came with free disney/hulu, so it suspended my annual plan until after I left last yr. I have 2 yrs left of my mistaken annual plan purchase and it’s feeling like I lucked out with all these price increases.
It seemed pretty clear to me that the low rate of disney plus at the start was to get everyone onto the platform and prices were always going to go up after it got enough subs and found its footing.
You have to understand that this is a ploy to get you to subscribe to the bundle with Hulu and/or ESPN. Jack up the price of the standalone service so the bundle looks more appealing.
Disney+ launched and was losing insane amounts of money. Disney did that on purpose to gain customers and market share. They are kept raising prices to make back as much as they could.
I also don’t think they are planning on it lasting much longer tbh. They have started allowing their Disney+ content on other services. That is a test to see if they can make more licensing the content vs producing and streaming it themselves.
Until viewers leave en mass, they have no reason not to keep increasing prices
People could just stop paying it. Imagine how fast the price would come down if it wasn't selling. The problem isn't Disney. The problem is consumers will give Disney whatever they ask for.
This was the long game from the jump unfortunately. I’m only staying on for now, due to having toddler twins. Since its inception though, we now have 30+ physical copies of movies. We’re mostly tied to it because of the tv shows, but we’re almost at the point of only subscribing for short periods of time.
The point of low prices at launch was subscriber growth. At least Disney was investing in producing quality original programming back then.
Now all these streaming services need to be profitable. Ask yourself what content is on Disney+ that you can't live without and why you're still paying for the service.
I remember Disney came out and since we were in lock down during the beginning of s2 of the mandolorian I bought annually for $70. $5.83/mo. I knew at the time they were selling at a loss to boost subscribers! The current rate is ridiculous. My suggestion, figure out what programs you want to watch buy for a month binge and cancel, I’ve been doing that since 2024. I think it’s just a matter of time until they require longer periods.
This is what Empire builders do. They want to dominate their industry by putting stress on their customers to create record profits. Disney is the Empire king.
D+ being more generous with the price from the start makes the percentage higher, but it's obviously not a bad thing.
All streaming services add content over time, so it makes sense that more content costs more. Plus all content gets more and more expensive as expectations rise.
It's Disney. Their brand is strong, so they can add on a bit extra. This is how Apple sells the same thing but at double price.
That being said, i feel Disney is more of a "past" kind of service. Their strength is their amazing library of old Disney/Pixar movies, plus their TV shows, and then Marvel/Fox/Star Wars on top of that.
That's why i unsubscribed after watching my fill of old movies.
This is why I cancel it and pay for it around the holidays and my kids birthday month/summer I’ve noticed they actually get excited for it which is kind of cool to see.
It can't, which is why my Disney+ is ending next month.
At the price I pay for Disney+ or HBO, I'm expecting my favorite shows to be produced every other season so I always have something to watch. If not, what's the point of my paying for it?
It's great marketing though. Sell your product cheap, wait until people love it and depends on it for their entertainment, then ramp up the price once people can't manage without it.
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u/Myst3ryGardener 2d ago
They purposely set their initial price very low to break into the market as much as they could.