Disney Plus and Hulu price increases are coming

Disney Plus and Hulu subscription prices are going up, but only for subscribers who opt for the ad-free versions of those streaming services, Disney announced Wednesday. Viewers who bundle those two streaming services may not feel the pinch of a price increase, thanks to a new option that will combine Disney Plus and Hulu, without ESPN Plus.

Starting Oct. 12, the cost of a Disney Plus subscription without ads will jump from $10.99 per month to $13.99 per month. An ad-free Hulu subscription will see a similar $3 bump, from $14.99 per month to $17.99 per month.

If you’re already subscribing to both streaming services, you’re probably better off switching to Disney’s “Duo Premium” bundle, which will include ad-free versions of Disney Plus and Hulu for $19.99 per month. That option will go live on Sept. 6.

There’s no change to the monthly plans for Disney Plus and Hulu with ads, however. Those will still be $7.99 per month each. Other bundles that include Disney Plus, Hulu, and ESPN Plus will also see a price increase.

Given the number of services, bundles, and with/without ads options, Disney’s streaming subscription options just got considerably more confusing. Here’s Disney’s breakdown of the incoming price changes and bundle options:

* Effective as of Oct. 12
^ Available beginning Sept. 6

Disney Plus launched in November 2019 at $6.99 per month, meaning that as of October, Disney will have doubled the cost of a monthly subscription over the past four years. Naturally, the catalog of films and TV shows included as part of the Disney Plus service have massively increased since then, and de-aging Samuel L. Jackson for Secret Invasion doesn’t come free. Someone has to pay for that.

Netflix’s standard plan, sans ads, is $15.49 per month. Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max, formerly HBO Max, costs $15.99 per month. Disney Plus is still the cheapest of those options, but it subscription fees are slowly creeping up to match those competitors.

Disney will also reportedly take a page from the competition in 2024 by cracking down on password sharing. According to a report from The Wrap, Disney CEO Bob Iger said Wednesday during an investor call that the company is “actively exploring ways to address account sharing and the best options for paying subscribers to share their accounts with friends and family. Later this year, we will begin to update our subscriber agreements with additional terms and our sharing policies, and we will roll out tactics to drive monetization sometime in 2024.”