At today’s shareholder meeting, Disney announced that ads are coming to Disney Plus.
Starting Dec. 8, a version of the Disney streaming service will be available with ads for $7.99 a month. If you’re scratching your head, doing the math, and wondering why that’s about the same as your current ad-free subscription, that’s because the ad-free tier is going to bump up to $10.99 a month. The ad version will be known as Disney Plus Basic, with the ad-free tier known as Disney Plus Premium. All Disney Plus titles will still be available across both platforms.
This is a similar model to Hulu, another Disney-owned streaming service, which also has ad-free and ad models. And yes, Hulu is also set to get a price increase, starting on Oct. 10. The basic subscription will increase by a dollar, from $6.99 to $7.99, with the ad-free tier going from $12.99 to $14.99. Meanwhile, the Disney Plus Bundle — which currently includes Hulu with ads, Disney Plus with no ads, and ESPN Plus — will increase from $13.99 to $14.99 a month. The premium version, which includes ad-free Hulu, will remain the same at $19.99 a month. Meanwhile, Disney already announced that ESPN Plus prices will increase by the end of the month.
Previously, Disney announced an ad-supported model of Disney Plus would come in late 2022 — though it was said to cost less than the ad-free version. And it’s true; increasing the price of the ad-free version certainly makes the ad-tier cheaper.
