Disney hikes streaming prices once again

Disney (DIS) is increasing the prices of most of its streaming plans. Disney+ (DIS), Hulu, and ESPN+ will see their prices rise starting in mid-October. Both the basic and premium bundles will also see their prices rise by $2 more a month. The announcement comes the day before Disney reports its fiscal Q3 results.

Yahoo Finance senior reporter Alexandra Canal joins Market Domination to break down the prices hikes and what Wall Street is looking for in the entertainment giant's latest quarterly report.

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Market Domination.

This post was written by Nicholas Jacobino

Video Transcript

Get ready to pay more for some of your favorite streaming services.

Yes, again, here with more is Yahoo Finance's Alexander Canal All Josh another day, another streaming price hike and this time it's Disney and we're seeing various price hikes across the board up to 25% more than where pricing currently is today.

So let's start with that flagship Disney plus the monthly cost of that ad here, it's going to rise by $2 to 999.

While the ad free version will also take higher by two bucks to hit 1590 Hulu.

It's going to be a similar story there $2 more for the a supported version which brings us to 999 a month while the ad free version is going to rise by one buck to 1899.

Now, there were also the increases for ESPN Plus along with Hulu Plus Live TV, and those Disney bundles.

And this is an interesting one here because the company seems to want to be driving consumers to the bundle as opposed to encouraging people to subscribe to individual plans.

Because if you want the bundle version, both Disney Plus and the Hulu a tear that's just going to be 1099 a month.

So much more attractive price point for consumers still $1 more than previous.

But it's clear that Disney is really leaning into the bundle, not just within its own company but really with competitors as well.

We have the Disney Hulu Max Bundle.

We have that joint sports streaming venture between ESPN Fox and Warner Brothers discovery that set to come later this fall.

We're just seeing increased bundling across the board as these continue to rise there.

Now, the price hikes are set to take effect on October 17th, which is one year after the last round of price hikes for Disney, except at that time, they only hike the prices of their ad free version.

And now we're seeing the ad supported tears start to get some price hikes and you wonder what that means for some of the other competitors, especially like Netflix, for example, which is yet to touch.

It's a supported here.

It's one of the cheapest on the market right now at 699 but maybe this is a sign of more price to come there.

And Disney, I don't, I have so many comments, but I myself and ask you about Disney earnings reporting on Wednesday reporting on Wednesday before the Bell guidance is going to be really critical here, especially when we think about streaming and the parks business, the parks business.

You're looking for a rebound.

Whereas streaming, you're looking for some profitability, right?

And in the last earnings report, we did see Disney turn a profit for the first time in entertainment section.

But they did warn that results would once again be in the red when we get those earnings tomorrow morning.

We also don't have profitability across the board here, which is another issue for this company.

But Disney has consistently maintained that we will see profitability by the fourth quarter of 2024.

So that's something to watch there.

And then on the park side, Disney has admitted that they've seen slowing demand, operating income for the segment should be quote roughly comparable to the prior year.

So that spooked investors quite a bit analysts that they're saying that we should continue to see some of that softness, but they're not worried about the long term prospect here because Disney is committing $60 billion to its parks over the next 10 years are launching new cruise ships.

And there's hope that, you know, we'll see some momentum grow there because parks is really the bright spot for this company.

We've also seen bright spots across theatrical, right with inside out too Deadpool and Wolverine.

And although that's great incremental revenue, a lot of the analysts that I've been speaking with said it's not really a profitability driver like it was in the past.

So really the focus here is on streaming the parks, that's what analysts are gonna be keen into on the call.

Looking forward to it.

It's exciting stuff.