Disney is hiking the price of Disney+ and Hulu again next month, because, of course they are. According to TechCrunch, the company is rolling out another round of increases across standalone plans and bundles, with the clearest pattern we’ve seen for the last two years: ad-free gets pricier, bundles inch up, and the ad-supported tiers largely stay put to funnel you toward “cheaper” plans that make plenty of money on the back end.
Translation: Disney wants higher ARPU without nuking subscriber counts, and advertising is the bridge. It’s the same playbook Netflix, Max, and Peacock are running—raise the premium ceiling, keep the entry price steady, and let the ad business do its thing.
Why Disney’s doing this right now
Profit pressure hasn’t gone anywhere. Disney has promised investors a sustainable, profitable streaming business. The fastest levers are price, ads, and bundles. All three just got a workout.
Hulu is fully inside the house. With Hulu folded tightly into Disney’s ecosystem (and the combined app experience already live), pricing is the main knob to encourage the bundle and reduce churn.
Sports are expensive—and ESPN’s future is digital. As ESPN inches toward a full direct-to-consumer launch, the company needs oxygen—read: revenue—to fund rights and tech. Raising DTC prices for entertainment now is how you build the runway.
Ad tiers are working. The industry-wide data is pretty clear: ad-supported plans have become a growth engine. They help downshift price-sensitive users instead of losing them outright, and they often generate ARPU that rivals ad-free. Expect Disney to keep steering you there.
What this means for you (and your wallet)
If you’re on ad-free Disney+ or Hulu, you’re the target. Your monthly cost goes up. That’s the point.
If you’re on a bundle, you’ll likely see a smaller bump than buying à la carte—but a bump nonetheless. The bundle remains the “best” deal because Disney wants you locked in across services.
If you’re on an ad-supported plan, odds are your price won’t change (for now). This is the on-ramp Disney wants most folks to use.
Annual plans are still your hedge. If Disney offers an annual option, it’s usually the cleanest way to blunt future hikes—assuming you’re comfortable prepaying and sticking around.
The bigger streaming story here
We’ve fully pivoted into Cable 2.0. The great unbundling gave way to the predictable rebundling, and now the game is extracting more value from the customers who’ll pay up, while giving price-sensitive users a subsidized path via ads. It’s not heroic, but it’s effective. Add in password-sharing crackdowns and tighter device policies, and the playbook looks suspiciously standardized across the majors.
All this toggling also says the quiet part out loud: content alone isn’t enough to keep people put. Bundling Disney+ and Hulu creates a stickier package, but pricing is the real retention tool—especially when originals come and go in waves and library content is now everywhere. When the release calendar slows, prices tend to rise. When it heats up, they rise anyway.
How to play it without losing your mind
Rotate like it’s 2019: Cancel and bounce between services based on what you actually want to watch that month. It’s the most consumer-friendly power move you have in your arsenal.
Embrace ads strategically: If you watch a couple hours a week, the ad-supported tiers are fine and cheaper. Save the ad-free splurge for platforms you binge.
Use annuals and gift cards: When you know you’ll keep a service for a year, take the discount. The math adds up quickly after a couple hikes.
Audit your bundle: If you’re barely opening one app in the bundle, it might be time to unbundle and pocket the difference.
Will Disney lose subs over this? Some, sure. But the company is betting the bundle plus ad tiers will catch most churners on the way down. The rest will come back when the next tentpole hits. That’s not cynicism; that’s the behavioral data from the last few years.
The uncomfortable truth is that this is exactly where the market was always headed. Studios traded wholesale carriage fees for direct relationships, then discovered they missed the predictable cash flow. So we got price hikes, ads, and bundles. It’s not a plot twist—it’s the third act.
So yes, the monthly bill just got more annoying. But you’re not powerless. Vote with your watchlist, rotate with intent, and don’t be shy about dropping to an ad tier. Disney will be fine. Your budget should be, too.
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