Disney+ and Hulu prices are going UP

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Disney Plus and Hulu are getting steep price hikes

The Disney price hike hits as streaming division losses pile up.

www.theverge.com

Disney has announced that it’s raising the price of Disney Plus to $10.99 / month, up from its current price of $7.99 / month, starting December 8th in the US. The move comes as the company is looking to restructure its pricing options, which will soon include a $7.99 / month ad-supported tier.

Disney’s also raising the price of its Hulu subscription. The ad-free tier will jump from $12.99 / month to $14.99, while the ad-supported version will cost $7.99 / month, up from $6.99. The new pricing goes into effect on October 10th. A price hike for unbundled ESPN Plus streaming was announced in July, taking the monthly price from $6.99 to $9.99 / month.

I'd start rending my clothes, but I can't afford it.

 

[Noodles]

How much for the bundle version? I think I currently pay like $14.99 for Hulu with Ads and D+ (and ESPN but I never use that).

 

[Veritable Quandry]

Right now we are getting D+ and Hulu bundled with our Verizon phone plan, and kicking in for the commercial-free version of Hulu. Hopefully that option will continue. If not we will start rotating them with the other services we sign up and binge for a month and cancel.

 

[Beebo Brink]

After a year of Disney+, there wasn't much left to watch so I canceled my sub. Same for Hulu after a few months. I'm thinking Netflix is next on the chopping block. I'll wait a year or so, then pick them up for a few months to catch up with any new content. I'm just about to start an HBOMax sub to take their place.

 

[Noodles]

I don't currently have HBO Max but I really liked it overall. Honestly if I were limited to just 1 for some reason, it would be a good contendor. I will say, I had it before included with my DirecTV which I no longer have. I have considered subscribing again, but I want to see what pans out with the potential of Discovery+ absorbing it.

 

[Aribeth Zelin]

Honestly, I need to watch D+, and netflix, or at least make sure the spouse is watching them - I just, I want to see these shows, but I don't like just watching tv.... even on my computer. [Though, I guess if I can idly play a game while I'm watching, or knit, or..... ] but right now, I can't watch much during the day because spouse has constant meetings, and we're still in the same -small- office [was the guest room once upon a time.]

 

[Sid]

I only have the basic TV channels that come with the internet/TV package from my provider.
And I could easily do without tv during the summer period.
During December/January I might take Netflix or Disney as an extra.

 

[Jopsy Pendragon]

I'm a streaming glutton, in no particular order:

HULU: active sub, (bundled with HBOmax and Disney+ below)
Pros: I'm hooked on Only Murders in the Building, What We Do in the Shadows, and it's good for a wide variety of tv re-runs.
Cons: I really don't feel like I'm Hulu's target audience

HBOmax: active sub
Pros: Our Flag Means Death, Peacemaker, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Minx, Hacks, Westworld and even that trainwreck 'Raised by Wolves'. I'm hoping 'His Dark Materials' final season doesn't pull a 'game of thrones season 8' on me.
Cons: GoT final season. Grrr.

Disney+: active sub
Pros: Various new Star Wars and MCU content keep me coming back. Encanto and Hamilton, ...
Cons: Disney+'s long dry spells make it a contender for a 'sometimes' service rather than an 'all the time' service.

Netflix: active sub
Pros: The Sandman, Russian Doll, Bonding, Love Death & Robots, Brigerton, Sex Education ... Shadow & Bone
Cons: very hit or miss. I'm more than willing to watch content that's dubbed or subtitled if it's worth it... but it's increasingly hard to tell what is or isn't. "We're all dead" and "The School Nurse Files", "Sweet Home", "Squid Game" were gory and fun. "Warrior Nun" wasn't at all what I was expecting and I really enjoyed it. But there's a lot of crap in there too, which makes taking a chance on something new kind of off-putting.

Paramount+: active sub (roommate's account)
Pros: Star Trek:Strange New Worlds and Lower Decks have been a rare gems, and Prodigy is fun too.
Cons: other Star Trek content (discovery/picard) has been a bit more miss than hit for me, and their other original content doesn't interest me.

Amazon Prime: active sub (roommate's account)
Pros: I would have to probably pick up if my roommate didn't cover it. Outer Range was really good, Reacher was fun, The Boys disturbing, The Expanse ended too soon, Good Omens a delight, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel slightly cringey but so good. Love and Monsters... Really looking forward to season 2 of 'Wheel of time'.
Cons: honestly, all I can think of is that they have a bug with subtitles which for some reason kept coming up in German for some reason. A year or two ago, I was pretty down on Amazon original content for being kind of flat. Nicely produced just missing that 'something' that left me unengaged with the content. But they seem to have sorted that out.

APPLE TV+: had a 1 year subscription bundled with a purchase, it expired, we didn't renew.
Pros: We'd like to watch Ted Lasso and For All Mankind. 'The Morning Show' was good, 'Foundation' was very pretty but was felt like it was missing oversight that could have steered them around some continuity roughness. I really wanted to like "The Problem with John Stewart" but felt like maybe more time should have been spent on the problems and less on the team investigating them... maybe that's unfair, I didn't get past the second episode.
Cons: Really slow with new content and little interest in most of it.

 

[NyteWytch]

My addiction is similar to Jopsy. I usually do the black friday deal for hulu every year...so hulu only costs a buck a month. We would have amazon anyway cuz my husband is an addict for prime delivery. Disney we got in on the 3yr deal when it launched. I feel like I'm the only weirdo that enjoys netflix.

Hbo is part of my att vehicle wifi plan, so unless they kill that with the merger we will continue it. Paramount we got on an annual deal when halo launched (hubby's choice but I love me some trash reality tv). Apple we only have when given it for free. Oh and we do youtubetv because the dvr (and number of accounts) are so good.

I don't really foresee canceling any of them anytime soon since husband and I disagree on which to cancel and when.

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

I don't know what services we're subbed to, I have to stop and think.

I binged on "The Queen's Gambit" and Google tells me that's Netflix, and the wife is following all the new trek, and I had to set her up with Paramount+ on the Chromecast for that, and I watched a couple episodes of The Boys but that's a freebie with Amazon Prime.

I'd have been more into The Boys if they had someone checking their science.

 

[Noodles]

Current we have Prime, at least to the end of the year, D+ & Hulu Bundle, Paramount+, Peacock+, AcornTV and Discovery+.

The last 4 are basically, $5/month. D+ & Hulu is going to $15 I think. Amazon is tricky to count because I only have Prime for the shipping, and the price is going up more than I care to pay. I am going to say that's $35/month.

May drop Peacock though, thenonly reason we even have it was to watch Yellowstone.

 

[Jolene Benoir]

I only stream, choosing to only have internet without a bundled tv plan. I hate, hate, hate ads and usually will do whatever I can to avoid them. I have Disney+, Hulu (Black Friday deal), Amazon Prime, Netflix, Paramount+, AMC+ (also a Black Friday deal), PBS and Netflix.

There are three that are on the potential chopping block:

Disney+: this one is entirely based upon dislike of their strategy. It seems so much like what Walmart did. Come in low in an attempt to kill the competition, then jack up prices. I certainly do not feel like Disney is hurting for money as a reason for this hike.

Netflix: Sadly, as I give credit where credit is due here. They were the first and innovative, but with the loss of so many shows to Hulu and others, I find myself turning to it less often.

AMC+: Terrible, terrible app. I feel like some of the more recent entrants to the streaming wars are not even making an effort. They offer no means of selecting video rate, offer broken apps that do not work seamlessly as their competitor apps do and in AMC's case are nasty in the sense of only offering episodes for one month's time (I am sure to dissaude people from waiting until a season ends, then binging) which is total garbage.

 

[Lexxi]

I've written something up before, so this is probably a repeat.
Note: Series are listed where I watched them, even if they not original content for that streaming service.
Bold - better than expected
Italicized - avoid

Amazon Prime:
Movies: 1UP; Coming 2 America; The Tomorrow War
Series Completed: Comrade Detective; Counterpoint; Goku Midnight Eye; Invincible; Jean-Claude Van Johnson; The Kids in the Hall (2022 version); Reacher; The Tick; Truth Seekers; Upload; The Wheel of Time;
Series to Complete: The Americans
Series Abandoned: The Expance (too much vomitting); Jack Ryan; The Man in the High Castle; The Marvelous Miss Mazel; Night Sky; Outer Range; The Terminal List
Series to Try: A League of their Own (already out); Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power (Sept 2 2022)
Films to try: Thirteen Lives;
Films abandoned: Aeronauts

AppleTV+:
Films: Greyhound; Finch; Luck
Series Completed: Foundation (this is a series I'd have abandoned, but then 1st season ended before I could); Mythic Quest; Prehistoric Planet; Schmigadoon!; Ted Lasso;
Series Watching: For All Mankind
Series Abandoned: Invasion; See (interesting show but couldn't stand lead villain); Severance (like watching paint dry)

BroadwayHD:
Plays: Jekyll & Hyde (with David Hasselhoff); Macbeth (with Patrick Stewart); Noel Coward's Present Laughter (with Kevin Kline);
Series Completed: The Goes Wrong Show

Curiosity:
Series Completed: The Story of Wales; The Twilight of Civilizations

Discovery+:
Series Watching: Expedition Unknown; Expedition X; How the Universe Works; Mysteries of the Abandoned; What on Earth?

Disney+:
Films: Lightyear; Mulan; West Side Story
Series Completed: Ancient China from Above; Book of Boba Fett; Buried Truth of the Maya; Chasing the Equinox; Earth Moods; The Falcon and the Winter Soldier; Hawkeye; India from Above; Loki; Lost Cities with Albert Lin; Lost Cities with Albert Lin: The Flood; Lost Cities with Albert Lin: Megacity of the Maya Warrior King; Lost City of Machu Picchu; Lost Temple of the Inca; Lost Treasures of the Maya; The Mandalorian; Moon Knight; Obi-Wan Kenobi; Parallels; Petra: Secrets of the Ancient Builders; The Right Stuff; Stonehenge Decoded: Secrets Revealed; WandaVision; What If;
Series Watching: Drain the Oceans; Lost Treasures of Egypt; Lost Treasures of Rome;
Series Abandoned: Acapulco; Ms Marvel; The World According to Jeff Goldblum; The Villains of Valley View (worst thing I've ever seen)
Series to Try: Andor (Sept 21 2022); Cosmos: Possible Worlds; Europe from Above; I Am Groot (already out); Origins: The Jouney of Humankind; The Lost Tomb of Alexander the Great; Secret Invasion (2023); She-Hulk Attorney at Law (August 18 2022); Year Million

The Great Courses:
Series Completed: 1066: The Year that Changed Everything; The Celtic World; A History of Eastern Europe; The Inexplicable Universe: Unsolved Mysteries; Language Families of the World; Lost Worlds of South America; Maya to Aztec: Ancient Mesoamerica Revealed; Play Ball!: The Rise of Baseball as America's Pastime;

History Vault:
Series Completed: The Center Seat: 55 Years of Star Trek
Series Watching: The Food that Built America; History's Greatest Mysteries; How the Earth Was Made; The Presidents; Rome: The Rise and Fall of a Empire;
Series to Complete: Ancient Impossible; Enineering Disasters; How the Earth was Made; The Men Who Built America; The Men Who Built America: Frontiersmen;
Series to Try: Digging for the Truth;

HBOMax:
Series completed: Avenue 5, Batman the animated series; New Adventures of Batman; Blade Runner: Black Lotus; Doom Patrol; Naomi (horrible show); Peacemaker;
Series Watching: Ghosts (UK version); Harley Quinn; Last Week Tonight with John Oliver; Westworld
Series Abandoned: The Deuce; The Flight Attendant; The Game of Thrones; Our Flag Means Death; Titans (Incoherent. Too many flashbacks/flashforwards/flashsideways.)
Series to Try: House of Dragon (August 21 2022)

Hulu:
Series Completed: Dollhouse; Future Man; M.O.D.O.K.; Only Murders in the Building; The Orville: New Horizon; Terminator: The Sarah Connors Chronicles
Series Watching: Runaways
Series Abandoned: Y: The Last Man

Netflix:
Series Completed: Bridgerton; DC's Legends of Tomorrow; Disenchantment; Inside Job; Jupiter's Legacy; Kingdom; Lucifer; The Pentaverate; Space Force; Travelers; The Witcher
Series to Complete: Last Kingdom; One Day at a Time (2017-2020 version);
Series Abandoned: The Bureau of Magical Things; Cobra Kai; How I Meet Your Father; Iron Fist; Resident Evil;

Paramount+:
Series Completed: Salvation; Star Trek: Lower Decks; Star Trek: Picard; Star Trek: Strange New Worlds;
Series Abandoned: Halo; Hit the Floor; Star Trek: Discovery (overacted and too emotional); Star Trek: Prodigy

Showtime:
Series Completed: The Man Who Fell To Earth;

 

[Lexxi]

Oh, costs. Everything is per month except for Amazon Prime & Disney+ which is per year.
Amazon Prime: $119 going to $135 Feb 2023.
AMC: $8.99 (only free trial)
Apple+: free with computer
BroadwayHD: $8.99 (I've only ever had free trial)
Curiosity Stream: $2.99
Discovery+: $6.99 (free trial)
Disney+ (with Disney, Marvel, National Geo, Pixar, Star Wars): $79.99
The Great Courses: $7.99
HBOMax: free
History Vault: $4.99 (Free trial)
Hulu: $12.99
Netflix: $19.99
Paramount: $9.99
Showtime: $10.99 (only free Trial)

Most of the above were free trials I didn't extend, or I paid some other amount.
Probably will kill Paramount & Netflix. Maybe kill Hulu when Only Murders & Orville over. Probably kill Discovery+ before it leaves free trial (I can get the shows I like on it elsewhere).