A lot happened with Disney+ today. The with-ads version was given an official release date of December 8th and a price of $7.99/month. If that price point sounds familiar, it’s because that’s what Disney+ without ads currently costs. The premium no-ads plan will be going up in price again, this time from $7.99 a month to $10.99. The streaming service’s projected customer base for 2024 has also been lowered, but it is still expected to become profitable by the end of that year.
Wow, this really is a lot. Disney+ doesn’t seem to be doing so well going by these announcements. For one thing, the service lost money in the last quarter and isn’t expected to “become profitable” until 2024, 5 years after its launch. Yikes. $3 a month is also a rather significant price increase to institute all at once, and personally, I’m not thrilled. I think we all knew the great pricing wouldn’t last; Disney+ started out cheap to compete with other services. Most of the others have more impressive libraries, so it makes sense to go with a low price as a draw when your main customer base is big families. But this is an awfully big leap, and I imagine some people won’t be prepared to pay $36 more per year for the service.
What do you think? Am I the only one seriously considering switching to the with-ads plan? Talk to us in the comments!