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

Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+ get new pricing schemes this fall

Phil Nickinson
By

Disney+ — and along with it, fellow Disney-owned streaming services Hulu and ESPN+ — have never had the simplest of pricing schemes. And this fall they’re going to get a little more complex — and more expensive. And more countries are getting more options.

First up: Canada and some European nations will get the ad-supported option for Disney+ starting November 1, 2023. It’ll run $8 in the former, and 5 pounds or 6 euros in the latter. Current subscribers will stay in the ad-free plan unless they actively decide to switch.

Recommended Videos

That’s the simplest of the changes and additions. In the U.S., things are getting more complicated, with additional options and a number of pricing changes across Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ — and with all three as the Disney Bundle.

Related
Disney+ on a TV.
Phil Nickinson / Digital Trends

“The strong momentum of our ad-supported plans in the U.S. demonstrates the importance of providing consumers with choice, flexibility and value,” Joe Earley, president of direct-to-consumer for Disney Entertainment, said in a press release. “We are excited to expand that offering in more markets across the globe, including in Europe and Canada, and to launch a new premium duo bundle of ad-free Disney+ and Hulu this fall, as we take steps toward making extensive Hulu content available via Disney+ later this year for Bundle subscribers.”

Here’s the breakdown across the board:

Disney+ pricing

  • With ads: unchanged at $8 a month
  • Without ads: $14 a month, or $140 a year, effective October 12

Hulu pricing

  • With ads: unchanged at $8 a month, or $80 a year
  • Without ads: $18 a month, with no annual option, effective October 12
  • Hulu With Live TV: $77 a month with ads on the on-demand content, $90 a month without ads
  • Disney+ (without advertising) add-on costs $2 a month
  • ESPN+ add-on costs $11 a month

ESPN+ pricing

  • Now $11 a month or $110 a year, effective October 12
  • UFC pay-per-view standalone unchanged at $80 per event
  • Single UFC PPV event plus an annual ESPN+ subscription is $135, effective October 12

Disney Bundle pricing

  • Disney Bundle Duo Premium, which includes Disney+ and Hulu without ads for $20 a month
  • Disney Bundle Duo Basic, which includes Disney+ and Hulu (both with ads) for $10 per month
  • Disney Bundle Trio Basic with sports, which includes Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ (all with ads) for $15 per month
  • Disney Bundle Trio Premium with Disney+, Hulu (both with no ads), and ESPN+ (with ads) for $25 per month

On the subscriber numbers side of the ledger, Disney+ now stands at 46 million subscribers in the U.S. and Canada, down about 300,000 from the previous quarter. It has just shy of 106 million worldwide. ESPN+ now stands at 25.2 million subscribers, down about 100,000 from the previous quarter. And Hulu has 44 million subscribers of its on-demand service — up about 300,000 — and 4.3 million subs of Hulu With Live TV.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Phil Nickinson
Phil Nickinson
Section Editor, Audio/Video
Phil spent the 2000s making newspapers with the Pensacola (Fla.) News Journal, the 2010s with Android Central and then the…
FuboTV: channels, price, plans, packages, and add-ons
FuboTV icon on Apple TV.

If you're a sports fan, FuboTV may be the answer to your cord-cutting dreams. What is FuboTV? It's a live streaming service that focuses mainly on sports-focused live TV and can help you quit cable for good. And it's very much growing in popularity, currently sitting in fourth place in the U.S. with about 1.17 million subscribers.

FuboTV's pricing and plans -- and even the channels available -- are competitive with services that are many times its size. And that's what's great about the whole streaming space: You have options. That's also the hard part. It can be tough to tell the difference between FuboTV and Hulu With Live TV. Or FuboTV versus YouTube TV. What makes one stand out above the others?

Read more
Disney already knows if you’re sharing your streaming account
The Disney World castle as seen in the Disney+ streaming app.

Along with a number of price increases, the other big news to come out of Disney's (fiscal) third-quarter earnings report was that the company is taking a serious look at account sharing — password sharing, if you will — and will begin to crack down on it in 2024.

In other words, it's going to do what Netflix has done, and it's time to pay up. But we don't yet know exactly what that will look like.

Read more
What is Disney Plus: plans, price, and everything else you should know
The Disney Plus app interface on a smart TV.

Despite launching in November of 2019, Disney Plus has become a leading stalwart in the streaming service space. Boasting one of the best libraries of movies and TV shows around -- including some of the best original series from the likes of the MCU and Star Wars franchises -- Disney+ has shot up to 129.8 million subscribers worldwide as of February 2022. That puts it toe to toe with the likes of Netflix, Apple TV+, Amazon Prime Video, HBO Max, and others.

Despite a library that isn't quite as large as Netflix, Disney+ makes up for it in quality. It's the exclusive streaming platform for a significant portion of Disney's massive content archive and the only place to see new originals like Andor, Obi-wan Kenobi, The Mandalorian, Hawkeye, and WandaVision. Plus, with content from National Geographic and deals that can also net you Hulu and ESPN+ for one price, Disney+ is a formidable service.

Read more