Disney is raising the prices for its subscription services Disney+ and Hulu, starting Oct. 21. The Disney+ standalone plan with ads will increase by $2 to $11.99 per month, while the no-ads Disney+ Premium plan is increasing by $3 to $18.99 per month. The Disney+ Premium annual plan is increasing by $30 to $189.99 per year.
The Hulu standalone plan with ads is increasing from $9.99 per month to $11.99. However, the premium version of Hulu with no ads will remain at $18.99 per month. The price of ESPN Select is also being raised from $11.99 to $12.99 per month.
The Disney+ and Hulu with ads bundle subscription price is going up by $2 to $12.99, while the Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN Select bundle with ads is increasing by $3 to $19.99. The full list of price increases for Disney+ and Hulu bundle plans can be found on the company’s support page.
This rise in prices comes shortly after the company faced backlash for the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel’s late night show on ABC. Nexstar Media Group, which owns 28 ABC affiliates, announced that it was pulling Kimmel’s show because his comments during the aftermath of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk’s death were “offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse.”
Kimmel said on his show that the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement was “desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them, and doing everything they can to score political points from it.” A number of consumers reacted to Disney’s handling of the situation by cancelling their Disney+ subscriptions — The New York Times reported that the “cancel Disney+” campaign caused more “subscriber churn” than previous efforts to boycott Netflix over some of its controversies.
A company spokesperson told Bloomberg the rise in prices were planned for months, and were unrelated to the Kimmel controversy. Disney announced a week later that the show would return to air.
Disney had previously alluded to the price increases on its third-quarter earnings call, adding that it expects a modest increase in Disney+ subscribers in its fourth fiscal quarter. Disney last raised prices for its packages in October 2024, with most plans increasing by $1 to $2.
This is the fourth consecutive year that Disney+ has raised its streaming prices since launching Disney+ in 2019. Other streaming services, including Netflix and Peacock have also announced an increase in prices earlier this year.