Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Audio / Video
  3. News

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Disney+ with ads launches December 8; Hulu raises prices

Phil Nickinson
By

The ad-supported version of Disney+ will launch in the United States on December 8, 2022, the company announced today along with its earnings for the third fiscal quarter. The monthly subscription fee will cost $8 — that’s $3 cheaper than the “Premium” subscription, which runs $11 a month or $110 annually.

Disney+ on a TV.
Phil Nickinson/Digital Trends

The ad-supported plan also will be available as part of the Disney Bundle, which gives subscribers access to Hulu and ESPN+. There’s a new skinny Disney Bundle, however. Here’s how that breaks down:

Related Videos
  • Disney+ and Hulu, with ads: $10 a month
  • Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+, with ads: $13 a month
  • Disney+ and Hulu, without ads, and ESPN+ (which still has ads): $20 a month

The legacy version of the Disney Bundle, which includes Disney+ without ads, Hulu with ads, and ESPN+, remains $15 a month for existing subscribers.

Related

“With our new ad-supported Disney+ offering and an expanded lineup of plans across our entire streaming portfolio, we will be providing greater consumer choice at a variety of price points to cater to the diverse needs of our viewers and appeal to an even broader audience,” said Kareem Daniel, Chairman, Disney Media & Entertainment Distribution. “Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ feature unparalleled content and viewing experiences and offer the best value in streaming today, with over 100,000 movie titles, TV episodes, original shows, sports and live events collectively.”

Disney also announced that the cost of Hulu is going up, starting on October 10, 2022. It’ll cost $8 a month with advertising on the on-demand content, or $80 annually. If you want to get rid of most ads, it’ll cost you $15 a month. (There’s no annual option there.) ESPN+, as previously announced will cost $10 a month or $100 a year starting August 23.

Upcoming price increases notwithstanding, the trifecta of Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ remains a strong go-to for consumers. Disney+ increased its subscriber base to 152.1 million worldwide, with 44.5 million coming from the United States and Canada alone. Hulu’s on-demand service added about 800,000 subscribers for the quarter to hit 42.2 million, with another 4 million subscribed to Hulu With Live TV. (It no longer is the largest live TV streaming service in the United States, however, having ceded that ground to YouTube TV.) ESPN+ added a half-million subscribers for the quarter to end at 22.8 million.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
YouTube TV increases its monthly prices by $8 – is now the time to switch?
YouTube TV on Roku.

YouTube TV has raised the price of its monthly subscription by $8, from $65 to $73. The move comes on the heels of its announcement that it will be adding a multiview feature for sports channels. The change in price will hit current subscribers on April 18, however, the streaming service, which is owned by Google, has already started charging new customers the higher price.

It's been a while since YouTube TV last raised its prices. That was in 2020, when the streaming service increased subscriptions from $50 to $65. When the service first launched in 2017, it only cost $35 per month.

Read more
YouTube TV rolls out multiview: watch up to 4 NCAA games at once
An example of YouTube TV's multiview feature.

If you love college basketball and can process more than one game at a time, you're going to go bananas for YouTube TV's new multiview feature, which will be rolling out on a limited, early access basis starting March 14.  With multiview, you'll be able to pick up to four channels and see them all simultaneously, with the ability to easily flip the active audio from one to another. The new feature is compatible with any TV-based YouTube TV installations (streaming media players, smart TVs, and game consoles), but it doesn't yet work on mobile devices or computers.

Initially, multiview will only be available to select YouTube TV users, who will be chosen at random. But Google says the goal is to include every subscriber by the time NFL football season starts in the fall. Another limitation, at least for now, is that YouTube TV will preselect the multiview channels you can choose. At launch, only channels that carry NCAA tournament games will be included in that preselected list.
How to use YouTube TV multiview
If you're one of the lucky, randomly chosen users, you'll see an option to watch up to four preselected, different streams at once in your “Top Picks for You” section. After selecting multiview, you can switch audio and captions between streams, and jump in and out of a full-screen view of a game.
It's all about sports
At the moment, YouTube TV sees multiview as an enhancement of the sports viewing experience, so only sports content will be eligible. YouTube TV has had some big sports wins in 2022, including 4K coverage of the Soccer World Cup, and that trend will continue in 2023 thanks to its acquisition of the NFL Sunday Ticket games. However, YouTube TV recently lost access to MLB Network and the MLB.tv add-on, which reduces the amount of sports content available for multiview in 2023.

Read more
The first Roku-made televisions are now available at Best Buy
Roku Select Series television.

Roku today announced that its first slate of Roku Select and Roku Plus Series televisions — the first sets to actually be made by Roku — are now available exclusively at Best Buy. The first 11 models are meant to be affordable options not unlike the Roku TVs made by the company's manufacturing partners. (Those partners, so far as we know, will still make their own Roku TVs.)

The Plus Series is the more advanced of the two options, with QLED screens at 55, 65, and 75 inches. Those prices hit $649, $749, and $1,199, respectively.

Read more