New Streaming Prices and Disney+ to Introduce Continuous Playlists in U.S.

[DCBaker]

Details:

Disney+ announced today it is adding continuous playlists to its core subscription on-demand offering in the U.S. Beginning September 4, ABC News Live and a playlist focused on preschool content will be available to all subscribers, with four additional curated playlists to follow later this fall.

This new feature bolsters the Disney+ offering, ahead of updated pricing for various plans later this year, providing subscribers with both a live and on-demand streaming experience that will continue to grow throughout the year.

“Playlists are the latest example of how we’re providing the best value and experience for our subscribers every time they open Disney+,” Alisa Bowen, President, Disney+, said. “Whether its news, kids’ content, popular genres, hit TV shows or blockbuster films, there will be something for everyone in a lean-back viewing experience based on seasonality and interest.”

Ahead of the 2024 Presidential Election, all Disney+ subscribers will have access to ABC News Live, a 24/7 multi-award winning, premium streaming news channel for live newscasts, breaking news, live events and in-depth special reports.

Additionally, subscribers will receive a playlist focused on preschool content featuring TV series and shorts available on Disney+ including Sofia the First, The Lion Guard, Puppy Dog Pals, and Minnie’s Bow-Toons.

Later this fall, four additional curated playlists will initially roll out to Premium subscribers, featuring Disney+ content that will be refreshed monthly, including:

• Seasonal Content – a collection of seasonal-themed content from across the Disney+ catalog
• Epic Stories – a compilation of action-packed stories from marquee brands and franchises, including Disney, Marvel, and Star Wars
• Throwbacks – a destination for nostalgic pop culture content
• Real Life – a lineup of traditional documentaries, biopics, and true stories

With this growing offering, and new ways to enjoy your favorite Disney+ content, Disney subscription plans remain among the best values in streaming today. Beginning October 17, 2024, the new pricing for Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ ad-supported and ad-free plans in the U.S. will be:

Disney+ to Introduce Continuous Playlists in U.S. Beginning on September 4 - The Walt Disney Company

Disney+ announced on Tuesday it is adding continuous playlists to its core subscription on-demand offering in the U.S. beginning September 4.

thewaltdisneycompany.com

 

[DCBaker]

Variety posted a price comparison chart:

 

[Serpico Jones]

 

[John park hopper]

And that's why I dropped it

 

[Indy_UK]

oof... They are relentless with the price hikes. Obviously now feel any losses in subscribers will be made up by the rises.

 

[Disney Irish]

I'm not sure what people were expecting. Price hikes were always baked into the service since the beginning. It was never going to be a low price service forever.

And this is why you seeing different streamers bundling up their services together. To give consumers more choice and pick the services they want for a single price.

 

[Serpico Jones]

Problem is consumers don’t seem to want streaming services outside of YouTube, Netflix and Amazon.

 

[Disney Irish]

Problem is consumers don’t seem to want streaming services outside of YouTube, Netflix and Amazon.

According to who?

Disney+ is still in the top 3 of paid streaming services. And we'll see what the subs are tomorrow when earnings are reported, but outside of India there hasn't been a significant drop in subs in other regions. So D+ appears to be keeping its subs month-over-month. We'll see if that continues to be the trend.

 

[Serpico Jones]

According to who?

Disney+ is still in the top 3 of paid streaming services. And we'll see what the subs are tomorrow when earnings are reported, but outside of India there hasn't been a significant drop in subs in other regions. So D+ appears to be keeping its subs month-over-month. We'll see if that continues to be the trend.

Viewership is low and subscriber growth has stagnated.

 

[Disney Irish]

Viewership is low and subscriber growth has stagnated.

Viewership is based individual content, and that is across the board low for a majority of content on all streamers with few exceptions not just D+ and its content.

The same goes for sub growth, that is fairly stagnated across all streamers. We're no longer in the growth phase of streaming, its why most streamers don't report their subs anymore.

 

[doctornick]

Problem is consumers don’t seem to want streaming services outside of YouTube, Netflix and Amazon.

The problem is that consumers want to get streams for $5 a month and those kinds of prices are untenable with being able to generate a profit.

 

[MisterPenguin]

Viewership is low and subscriber growth has stagnated.

LOL.

Disney's subs for all streaming (and yes, they're currently separate streamers, but eventually will become one) is second only to Netflix.

When you include what's left of linear cable TV, which will eventually be all streaming, Disney's the number one content provider.

Disney's core subs have grown every quarter. Sub numbers were always going to flatten because there are only so many humans on earth. Major continuous growth for years and years was never a reality for Disney. Netflix learned that the hard way a year ago, so, they went to ad-supported and kept raising their sub fees.

 

[larryz]

Dear Bob,

No thanks.

Regards,
Me

 

[Serpico Jones]

 

[Disney Irish]

What's funny about that is while D+ and Hulu are listed separately they really should be added togeher, so that is 5.0% which is higher on that list than most of the rest of streaming except Netflix and Youtube.

But then you look at this number from that same data set and its shows just how much Disney leads the other streamers across all its distributions methods -

 

[doctornick]

My apologies, but are you posting this in an attempt to show viewership for Disney steaming is “low”? It doesn’t seem to support that at all. I see that Disney has the 4th and 5th highest streamers and they’d be 3rd if combined (which is where they are headed). And YouTube content is kind of a whole separate thing.

Essentially being second to Netflix as a streaming service doesn’t seem like a bad position at all.

 

[MisterPenguin]

What's funny about that is while D+ and Hulu are listed separately they really should be added togeher, so that is 5.0% which is higher on that list than most of the rest of streaming except Netflix and Youtube.

And it doesn't even include ESPN+.

 

[Dead2009]

The problem is that consumers want to get streams for $5 a month and those kinds of prices are untenable with being able to generate a profit.

There's gonna come a time though where we're being charged 12 and 14 dollars for just the ad supported version which is supposed to be the cheapest of all the tiers across each platform. If that ever happened then you're just better off going back to cable.

 

[Disney Irish]

And it doesn't even include ESPN+.

Not only that but when you dive into the data even more D+ saw a 14.8% increase in usage growth, which is higher than other streamers -

"Across streaming platforms, four notched double-digit usage growth including Disney+ (+14.8%), Tubi (+14.7%), Netflix (+11.8%) and Max (+11.0%), all with 20% or more attributable to younger viewers. Additionally, most streaming services exhibited shares that were near or equal to previous platform-bests, while YouTube and Tubi both set high watermarks with 9.9% and 2.0% of TV, respectively. "

Time Spent Streaming Surges to Over 40% in June, the Highest Share of TV Usage in the History of Nielsen’s The Gauge™ | Nielsen

Streaming surges past 40% of TV usage in June 2024 according to Nielsen's The Gauge.

www.nielsen.com

So for a streamer that a poster is claiming is losing viewers the data just doesn't reflect that.

 

[Disney Irish]

There's gonna come a time though where we're being charged 12 and 14 dollars for just the ad supported version which is supposed to be the cheapest of all the tiers across each platform. If that ever happened then you're just better off going back to cable.

Go back to what? Cable is dying, it won't exist in any meaningful way by the time that happens.