On Wednesday, Disney held its Q2 earnings call. During the call, Disney CEO Bob Iger revealed that the company plans to combine Disney Plus and Hulu into a “one-app experience.”
While we continue to offer Disney Plus, Hulu, and ESPN Plus as standalone options, this is a logical progression of our DTC [direct-to-consumer] offerings that will provide greater opportunities for advertisers while giving bundle subscribers access to more robust and streamlined content, resulting in greater audience engagement and ultimately leading to a more unified streaming experience
Before you get too excited about the move, there is a caveat. Along with bundling the platforms together, Iger also revealed that there will be a price increase for ad-free tier subscriptions.
Meanwhile, the pricing changes we’ve already implemented have proven successful, and we plan to set a higher price for our ad-free tier later this year to better reflect the value of our content offerings.
As of the time of this writing, an ad-free plan on Disney Plus costs $10.99. This subscription price was raised just last year, along with Disney adding an ad-supported tier. Although Iger mentioned a price hike is coming in the future, he didn’t say how much the new price will be.