Another Disney+ & Hulu Price Rise + Live Channels Coming Soon | Disney Plus News

coming up we've got lots of Disney plus news to talk about including price Rises password crackdowns profitability live channels and much more but before we go any further make sure you do hit that subscribe button to keep up with the latest Disney plus news hi it's Roger here from what's on disneyplus.com it's time for a quick Disney plus news round up and there's a lot of stuff today because Disney's had its latest quarterly Financial results and that's when we find out a lot of information Disney did put out a little bit of extra information last night um so let's get into some good news first off so if you like the idea of having live channels on Disney plus good news if you're in the United States in September Disney plus will be adding ABC News live going to be able to watch that directly within Disney plus also they're going to be adding curated lists the first one's going to be like Disney Jr they're also going to be adding some additional channels as well um including seasonal content which will um be a collection of seasonal themed content from across Disney plus epic stories Throwbacks and real life those four different channels are only going to be available to premium customers um and they're going to be adding more at a later date um it's a little bit of a weird way they're doing it it's a curated list rather than a channel because they don't maybe want to get in on some issues with you know the cable platform so therefore they're calling it something different but this is basically a lean back experience where you can just sit back and it will just roll through so it's kind of essentially it's just a playlist just going through show after show after show I'm going to again be a bit we weird in terms of how they are operating this um not a lot of channels they said they're going to add some more they're trying to increase engagement for this platform we're trying to get more people to watch it um I'm not going to lie I thought this was a bit weak um you know like one channel for Disney Junior stuff and ABC News live for um core subscribers and an additional four channels at a later date for premium customers not a lot I thought we were going to see a lot more um I thought you know 20 30 plus channels instead yeah this is really lackluster I do think with the addition of ABC News live this is a good timing especially with the upcoming presidential race coming up obviously in November they want to be there for that one and again it offers more content more things that you can um watch different kinds of content though it's like I can see why they're giving away free they give away on YouTube that's where I watch it um but yeah so I think I think it's good that they're adding it but they definitely seem to be staying away from the idea of them being channels so people don't get confused with like Disney Channel Etc stuff like that a little bit weird not entirely convinced now the thing is that was weird with this press release for this particular feature is it kind of slipped in at the bottom well because we're adding this we're actually also going to be increasing the prices it's like really you're going to try to sell the fact that this little thing that you're adding is worth of price rise ABC News live you can watch live on YouTube for free and it's just a curated list you could don't it it's PR rubbish basically for that so they put the prices up um so this is going to be coming in on October the 17th in the United States no words yet on if this is going to be happening internationally but let's be honest we know it's going to happen we know price Rises they've been doing them annually year on Year all the other streaming platforms are doing it it's not just them so I know a lot of people be doing it and they've given us a couple of months notice but obviously as well as you know it's only been 9 months or so since the last price rise but by the time this comes in it'll be about a year as we know everything is going up just this constant thing and so they're putting their prices up so again with the United States the pricing is a little bit funky because of all the different options that they provide I mean it's so so confusing with the amount of different options so generally most um of them are going up by about a dollar for the ad tier one a little bit more expensive if you don't have the ads so the the core like default standard with ads is now going up to $9.99 Hulu is also going to be going up to the same price however you can get them both together the Dual premium one for just $10.99 a month so literally this is such a way of trying to get you to have both platforms um I mean let's be honest if you're paying $9.99 for Hulu or Disney plus you get one Buck more and suddenly you've got um uh you know both of them and also if you really want more you can jump up to the um the max tier as well get get all three of them for $16.99 probably a reason why it was a bit of a weird one I put out an article about the fact that some data showed that the bundle for Disney Plus Hulu Max seemed a little bit more expensive than it should be lo and behold within a few hours the price has gone up and therefore for that entire article is now devoid because now it does actually add up because they had already baked in the price rise also they're putting up the price of ESPN plus um yeah it's all going to be going up um it's yeah it's definitely moving into the idea now that they want you if you are just a Disney plus subscriber to be looking at the idea of getting the bundle cuz that's where you're going to save some money or even saving money you're going to be able to get a benefit um some of the other things in terms of price Rises just to kind of put it into context if you don't have ads it's now going to cost you $15.99 a month then when you think of how much Disney plus was when it launched back in 2019 of $6.99 it has just gone up and up and up and obviously a lot of people are upset about this and naturally so the fact we are getting a lot less content and yeah it's it's definitely a really nasty price but it's those bundles it's those bundle prices of where now you're looking atting that's what I should get that's what I get and they're definitely pushing you to get those bundles Hulu live TV is going up if you have the ad free version that's just under $100 a month crazy um but also this kind of ties in with everything else uh Disney Plus for the very first time and along with Hulu and ESPN plus has just become profitable for the very first quarter um um three months before they plan to way back in 2019 they said that by the end of 2024 the streaming division would be profitable they've made it by a few months in advance but they finally hit profitability um this time two years ago they were losing about 1.5 billion a quarter now they finally hit profitability and they want to keep adding to that and obviously these price Rises will feed straight into that there that's all part of it um it was also revealed that the password Crackdown is currently underway in many countries around the world and they've had no negative uh backlash to this and then in September it's going to be rolling out everywhere and that they expect we'll also see a rise in subscriptions just in time for the new price rise to come in it's almost like they plan this stuff and so that will help Disney plus and the other platforms continue to go into profitability and that's where they are it's not just about just kind of breaking into profitability they want to start making major money and that is going to be a key thing that they're looking for cutting back on the amount of spending yeah so generally you know let's just call the spade a spade you know prices are going up uh costs are going down and all of that is going to mean that for us uh Disney plus subscribers we're getting less you know we're getting less stuff and we're getting more ads and we're paying more for it and unfortunately that just seems to be across the board for everything no matter what you do no matter what you whatever is going on generally you are now having to pay more and you are getting less and that seems to be just the basics for this also during the courtly results it was real that Disney and Comcast are still at odds over the valuation of Hulu they can't agree on it they're still expecting um that not to be resolved until 2025 which I think is a big core problem for this because they can't then merge Hulu and Disney plus together fully until they get this stuff sorted with Comcast that's why we never see them really advertise it on none of the press releases none of the trailers they never mention the fact that you can watch you know the way that they they just not going near that one and I think there's probably some legal reasons why they can't do that one personally I wouldn't have liked to have done these price Rises and then then when they do it um you kind of go right we're merging them together cuz if you'd said okay you now get both for $10.99 that wouldn't have seen such a big price rise but of course they can still do this again when they do the final merger it is yeah it's messy no doubt about it ultimately no there is the counterargument to this the thing simple truth is is Disney plus needs to become profitable in order for it to survive if the streaming division keeps losing money this is just not longterm not going to not going to work this is why a lot of different companies are looking at their platforms and whether or not they can actually make money from this one Disney has been spending billions and billions and billions to get here and now they're at a point now where they've reached a certain cross hod and now it's about the growth and moving it to the next step and more consolidation more cost cutting will help do that and definitely can see you know that that it's now moving in the strong Direction and it will kind of push now that you know Disney plus is now profitable Max is profitable Netflix is profitable you're really now seeing that shift away and the ones that aren't are going to be the ones that will probably drop off because yeah essentially these can't run indefinitely as lost leaders um Disney also revealed that the success of Inside Out 2 and deadpol and Wolverine had a really good uh result for them there was more and more people watching the original films on Disney plus they were also able to add million plus subscribers they feel fun the Boost of it plus obviously they will get a boost when those films eventually arrive on Disney plus they also confirmed um some new details on how many subscribers they've got now this is always a little bit difficult because it's always a little bit hit and miss in terms of how they do so so overall they added just over 20 100,000 subscribers globally Disney plus now has 153.7 million subscribers globally as I said it's up about 200,000 from last quarter um actually in Disney Plus in the US and in Canada they actually were able to add 800 ,000 subscribers however they did lose them internationally about 100,000 internationally but it was in India that they lost half a million subscribers in the last quarter again we've just seen this constant bleeding in India and I suspect we'll see some big changes when they move over to whatever they're doing with the star system they were asked about it during the cly and they said no we're not doing we're not talking about that until it's finalized so again I'm not too sure but definitely seeing a big big shift in terms of Disney plus now becoming profitable but we're still very much in limbo and Disney are very much looking at like or their big theatrical releases are just going to be a big boost for Disney plus and that's how you're going to watch them they're trying to improve engagement they're trying to get you to watch more of it and they're doing this through the introduction of the ESPN Hub later this year the Hulu content ABC News live the live channels they're all trying to get that engagement higher to get more money from advertising and unfortunately we're just in this weird spit where they can't really fully sort this out until they sort out that Comcast situation can't believe here we are over 5 years later we're still having to have this problem but overall it was a very good quarter for Disney especially from its streaming point of view becoming profitable 3 months early that is a really good sign and for the long term it is really good unfortunately all the price Rises and all the other bits and pieces aren't so good for us but you know swings and roundabouts what is good for the business ultimately will be better for us um yeah we're just seeing now that just a big shift really um in terms of the company but I'd love to know your thoughts on all of this in the comments below we going to go check us out over at whats on disney.com like follow And subscribe and I shall see you guys soon laters [Music]