(RepublicanDaily.org) – Disney has jacked up costs for subscribers to its streaming services, passing the burden to consumers after reporting a rare quarterly revenue loss for the quarter ended July 2023.
Customers will be made to pay 27% more, or $13.99, for the ad-free subscriptions for Disney+ come October 12. The current monthly fee stands at $10.99. Ad-free Hulu, on the other hand, will increase by 20% to $17.99 per month from the current $14.99. By October 12, Disney will also hike prices up for the two Hulu + Live TV packages by $7 each, making the ad-supported tier $76.99 while the ad-free version will have customers paying a cent shy of $90. Finally, the price for ESPN+ will go up by a dollar to $10.99 from $9.99.
The prices for the ad-supported tiers for both Disney+ and Hulu will remain the same.
During the company’s earnings call, Disney CEO Bob Iger also reassured shareholders that he would enact initiatives to prevent password-sharing among customers by 2024, saying that the “significant(ly)” widespread practice is increasing costs for the company.
The Disney chief executive also pledged to go for quality over quantity in terms of the content Disney will produce going forward. He also promised addressed concerns regarding the current strikes by the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) and the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) against Disney and other major studios. One of the particular issues writers and artists are fighting for is for them to also receive income from streaming residuals. The strikes have seen production halted on major shows and caused delays for the release of other Hollywood projects.
The House of Mouse recently reported a net loss of $460 million for the quarter or a loss of 25 cents per share. For comparison, the company posted a net income of $1.41 billion, or 77 cents per share, during the same quarter a year ago. Disney attributed the loss to $2.65 billion in one-time charges and impairments, much of which were costs related to what the company called “content impairments,” or content that was pulled out of its streaming platforms and the expiration of agreements for third-party licenses.
Copyright 2023, RepublicanDaily.org
