Entertainment 2.0 #719 – Disney+ Price Hikes and a New Fire TV Stick 4K

Disney+ getting more expensive yet again.

And because Disney+ is kind of a giant...

I don't want to say a mess.

Like, there's just so many options.

There are so many ways.

We're not gonna talk about every single possible bundle and how much it's increasing by because there are bundles with Hulu and with ESPN, but there's d- different versions of ESPN, and there's an HBO bundle, and there's all of these different things.

And the important thing to know is if you're in a Disney+ bundle of some sorts, it's getting more expensive.

[laughs] That's the downside here.

So if you have standalone ad-free Disney+ Premium, it is going up to 21.50 a month.

That, that's a 13% increase, and the ad-supported version is also going up to 12.50 a month.

You know, one of the things that I don't like about this, Richard, or at least the way that Disney is doing a, a lot of this stuff...

So the NHL season started yesterday, and so of course I got an email from ESPN because all of the opening night games were on ESPN, and they're like, "Upgrade to ESPN Unlimited so that you can watch all of these games." And I'm, I was like, "All right, I'm-

That's like $40 a month, man.

Right.

I was like, "I, I'm curious.

What would it cost me to upgrade?" And so I open it up, and it was like, uh, it's gonna be like 35 a month, and I'm like, "That's only a few dollars more than I'm already paying.

That sounds great." But I, I scrolled and scrolled and scrolled and scrolled and scrolled through, uh, a, a million, like, little disclaimers and stuff to find out, oh, no, that price, it does get me ESPN Unlimited, but it puts me on the ad-supported version of everything else when I'm on the ad-free versions of those things currently.

And so yes, it would be like $45 to have ESPN Unlimited with the ad-free versions of all of this stuff.

So yeah, it's, it's getting pricey for sure.

Um, the ad-free bundle that is just Disney and Hulu, they call this the duo, duo bundle, um, that's going up to $22 a month.

Um, but the ad-supported version of that bundle is not going up in price.

That's interesting.

That is staying flat at $13 a month, and, um, this is the, the fourth price hike from Disney in four years.

That's a lot.

[laughs] But it feels like the norm at this point, right? Like, it's just like every year the services get more expensive.