The Walt Disney Company will increase the price of its flagship streaming service Disney Plus by $1 a month, starting Friday.
The price increase was announced last year during a presentation for the company’s investors, with executives pledging billions of dollars for new Disney movies and television shows that would land on the streaming service in the coming years.
Disney is covering this investment with a $1 a month price increase for its Disney Plus streaming service. The increase takes effect on Friday; customers will have to pay $8 a month or $80 a year to unlock the full Disney film and TV show catalog offered on Disney Plus.
A bundle featuring Disney Plus, the adult-oriented Hulu and sports-centric ESPN Plus is also going up in price. The cheapest bundle, which includes brief ad interruptions on Hulu, will cost $14 a month from Friday onward. A more-expensive, interruption-free bundle will cost $18 a month.
Price increases for streaming services are not unusual — Netflix has raised its subscription on a somewhat-regular basis for the last few years, and cable-like streaming services have seen similar price hikes as pay television networks demand more for their channels.
Disney has seen fewer price hikes among its ESPN Plus and Hulu streaming services: ESPN Plus raised its price by $1 a month last year, while Hulu lowered the cost of its ad-supported package two years ago.
The price increase set to take effect on Friday is the first time Disney has increased the cost of a subscription to its flagship service.
Earlier this month, Disney announced it had topped 100 million global subscribers.
