Disney Plus takes inspiration from Netflix with price increases and ads

Disney Plus
(Image credit: What Hi-Fi?)

There's no getting around it, streaming is getting more expensive. The latest perpetrator of this unfortunate trend is Disney as it plans to make its services more expensive in the US and introduce ad-supported subscription tiers in the UK, Canada and eight European countries. 

Starting with the US, both Disney Plus and Hulu's premium tier subscriptions (without ads) are getting price increases later this year. 

Disney Plus Premium (currently $10.99 per month) will now cost $13.99 per month, a 27 per cent price increase. Hulu without ads will go up from $14.99 per month, to $17.99 - a 20 per cent increase. However, the ad-supported tiers for both services will remain the same ($7.99 per month each), and the combined bundle of both services will also stay at $9.99 a month. 

It's not all doom and gloom however, as Dinsey has announced that it will begin offering a combination plan for both Disney Plus and Hulu without ads for $19.99 per month, which is a saving of $8.99 per month (or 37 per cent).

Moving up to Canada and across the pond to the UK and Europe, Disney will expand its ad-supported Disney Plus tier to these territories starting 1st November 2023. It will cost $7.99 per month in Canada, £4.99 per month in the UK, and €5.99 in the following EU countries: France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Norway, Sweden and Denmark. But that's not all, as Disney claims that it will raise the price of the non-advertisement supported tier in those markets in December for those aforementioned markets.

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Senior Staff Writer

Lewis Empson is a Senior Staff Writer on What Hi-Fi?. He was previously Gaming and Digital editor for Cardiff University's 'Quench Magazine', Lewis graduated in 2021 and has since worked on a selection of lifestyle magazines and regional newspapers. Outside of work, he enjoys gaming, gigs and regular cinema trips.

  • JR75
    These streaming companies better be careful. With all of these price increases, people will start thinking, "Do I really need this?" and start deciding which streaming services they need to drop. I know I will. I have several steaming services and they all have either raised prices or are about to. I will most likely start sacrificing one or more services. Besides, what are you getting for these price increases? Not really anything - just paying more for the same thing.
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