The mass boycott of Disney, with so many us canceling our Disney+, Hulu and ESPN subscriptions, was surely instrumental in convincing Disney to reinstate Jimmy Kimmel Live. Disney lost billions in stock value practically overnight. Now we have to figure out how to stick it to Sinclair and Nexstar, but I digress. It turns out that there was another reason for Disney to protect free speech/their bottom line: they had planned a price raise for most of their streaming platforms, which they just announced yesterday. Here’s more, from CNBC:
Disney on Tuesday unveiled price increases for its streaming subscription packages beginning Oct. 21.
The stand-alone Disney+ ad-supported plan will see a $2 increase to $11.99 per month, while the premium no-ads plan will jump $3 to $18.99 per month or get a $30 annual hike to $189.99 per year.
The Disney+ and Hulu ad-supported package will increase by $2 per month, and both of the bundles with Disney+, Hulu and ESPN will see a $3 monthly increase. The packages with Disney+, Hulu and HBO Max will also both increase by $3 per month.
The NFL+ plans will remain at the same pricing.
Kimmel had a clever nod to the boycott during his opening monologue yesterday. He said he was going to read a statement from Disney with conditions for his return to air, and it was just brief instructions on how to reactivate your Disney+ and Hulu accounts.
This is such a dumb move from Disney! It was surely in the works for a while, but they should have delayed it at least a month. Now there’s even less incentive for people to re-subscribe after the boycott. You can see the full price increase here. By raising prices for ad-supported packages they’re just nickle and diming their customers who can least afford the service. I was considering resubscribing to Hulu and Disney+ after dumping them for censoring Kimmel. I might if there’s specific content I want, but for now I’ll save that money and invest it in AMC A-List. I have no moral high ground, I subscribe to Fubo for my job primarily and that’s owned by Disney. As Kismet wrote yesterday, it’s hard to boycott these media monopolies. We can do it though, and we should continue to vote with our wallets.
The CEO of Disney, Bob Iger (shown here), makes $41.1 million a year.
Fire Bob Iger. He’s as bad as the Target CEO.
They didn’t even fire the target ceo – he was “removed” (that word was a choice) and given a seat on the board of directors (or whatever they call it) less work- still tons of money and power.
They promoted his underling to his position, maintaining that they hold white supremacist values and are not about to change.
I loved having disney and hulu (excepting the disney interface sucks, and they don’t put titles before the pictures of the shows/movies which sometimes makes it difficult to read from the script on the movie cover photo.
But i ordered Andor on dvd, and i got a bootleg copy of the eras tour movie. So now, i don’t need to keep paying $20 to re-watch 2 things i love- which was a stupid system anyway.
I was very disappointed in that. I was hoping for a DEI change so I could go back to Target. 🙁
The headline here was “Disney gives you another reason to cancel.”
The billionaire class is so out of touch with the people they seek to exploit.
Makes me feel better that I cancelled everything yesterday. I will suck it up and just do YouTube TV which is basically cable.
My Disney subscription ends today. I’ve decided to pay for Netflix and YouTube only. I’ve even cancelled Amazon Prime. I cut cable years ago, and with these two streaming services, I’m still paying more than I was for a loaded cable package.
I’m no longer playing with these corporations. We have so much more power than we realize. Look at Target, look at the lack of tourism in the US. If the C-Suite wants to cozy up to fascism, let’s make sure the C-Suite loses their jobs.
I basically just do Netflix and even then… I cancel for three months every now and then to save money. I don’t pay for YouTube because I hate Google and DuckDuckGo has a video player that automatically skips the ads so I use that on my TV. I have CBC Gem (good option for us Canadians) and I have pay for a VPN to watch PBS, BBC and ABC (Australian Broadcasting Company), mostly so my stepdaughter can watch Bluey.
For those of you who are worried about Bluey – fun story. It’s not a Disney show, it’s Australian public television. There most valuable asset on Disney plus is made with government funding from Aussie taxpayers. And ABC has amazing comedy too! Don’t let them tell you socialism is all bad.
I’ve used Apollo TV for about 6 years now. It can be kinda buggy sometimes but overall it’s worth it to have almost all the shows and movies from every platform in one place (for $220/year), plus local affiliates from the whole USA and sports channels you’ve never even imagined. I download it on a Firestick and have the app on my phone but there are other ways to get it.
That’s okay, we cut them off already and we’re not going back. They’re going to learn.
I canceled Disney+ the way that company capitulated quickly to that administration! I knew I would never go back and never will! They have no principles and Bob Iger needs to go!
interesting because when I canceled it they tried to woo me back with $2.99 (I think) for 6 mo
I canceled Disney and Hulu and picked up PBS and BRITBOX. great content!!
Yes, PBS has great content! BritBox content is good too, but I don’t subscribe to it because PBS has so many British shows!
i’d recommend acorn tv, too, home of midsomer murders and one of my favorite mystery shows, brokenwood (out of new zealand)
Plenty of Acorn & BritBox content available for free via my local City/County library streaming platforms. I’m on alert to see if PBS Passport subscriptions increase in the wake of all this MafiaMedia strategizing.
I canceled Disney (along with deleting all my social media except for Bluesky) after the election. I have PBS and Acorn TV and am happy with those. I go on/off with Britbox.
Yep, I became a PBS member a little after Trump got into office. Long overdue—and I catch more stuff on public tv than on streaming anyway…especially with other online…options. 😈😈
Goes to show that customers didn’t feel so loyal after all and that they could easily live without those services . 4bn dollar drop is jaw dropping.
For companies who live and die by the dollar, they never think their products are disposable when rubber-greed meets the bad economy road. Funny thing about capitalism…🙄🙄🙄
Yeah, I’m thinking not that many people are going to be subscribing again anytime soon.
I have an annual subscription that is up for renewal in November. I’m not sure what we’re going to do. We definitely use Disney+ probably the most out of any streaming service (my boys love the Simpsons) but not sure its worth the price increase.
I’m seeing a lot of people say they wont go back bc of Kimmel and the immediate capitulation to the administration (even if they walked it back) but I think there is a legit argument to be made that when a boycott is effective (as it was here) then people should resubscribe because disney will track that. if everyone boycotts and never goes back then there is no leverage next time Disney is attacked by the Trump administration.
But I also get that some people view this as disney showing its true colors and not wanting to be their customer anymore regardless.
We get DVDs, including The Simpsons, from the local library. Support your local libraries!
P.S. – We didn’t have a DVD player anymore so we bought one for $100. Problem solved and cheaper than streaming.
Historically we get our Disney etc. content off the back of the internet truck whilst using a VPN because F those guys. Last month our internet provider cut us off saying it could tell what we were doing, then essentially said this was a warning, now you’re on a watch list.
The question we can ask in response to these streaming platform price increases is: why are they raising their prices? Because, quite literally, nothing seems to justify such an increase. Financially, Disney is doing well, and their platforms aren’t offering anything new to warrant it.
BECAUSE THEY CAN.
Y’all please remember to put pressure on Sinclair & Nexstar for their right wing pandering. Target their advertisers, and let THOSE companies know why you will not be buying their products due to their association with free speech suppressors.
WE THE PEOPLE in deed!!!
I was happy to learn that I can watch Jimmy Kimmel on Youtube, since our local station won’t carry his show.
I just subscribed to Paramount+ to check out Cote de Pablo’s new Tony and Ziva show (meh) and am pleasantly surprised by their library. Rewatching golden oldies like The Good Wife (still excellent) and the very good Matt LeBlanc comedy Episodes. Not gonna re-uo for Disney or ESPN unless for a specific program, and then only for that month.
Heh—I was wondering if Tony & Ziva was any good. It looked piecemeal and kinda…rehashed. Thanks!