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How Disney’s price hikes push bigger bundles
Jared Newman | 
Disney is raising prices on most of its streaming services again, and the subtext is clearer than ever: If you’re not bundling, you’re wasting money.
The price hikes, which take effect on October 21, push the standalone cost of Disney+ to $12 per month with ads and $19 without, while Hulu’s ad-supported plan is increasing from $10 to $12 per month. While Disney’s various bundles will also cost more, the price hikes for those services aren’t as drastic, and in some cases aren’t increasing at all. I have a full price rundown in my column.
(Yes, the timing is terrible, with Disney’s temporary suspension of Jimmy Kimmel last week leading to a wave of Disney+ and Hulu cancellations, but it’s also coincidental. The company has raised prices every October since 2023 and told Bloomberg that it planned the latest round months ago.)
This was all too easy to see coming. Disney and its peers have latched onto the idea that when people bundle services together, they’re less likely to cancel. They are now taking those incentives to their logical conclusion, in which bundled pricing provides cover for price hikes across the board.
Weekly rewind
YouTube TV’s NBC dispute YouTube TV and NBCUniversal are warning of a potential blackout if they can’t reach a new carriage agreement by September 30. With their current deal up at the end of this month, YouTube wants to pay less for NBC’s channels and may be willing to let them go dark in a push for more favorable terms. If they can’t reach an agreement, YouTube says it’ll offer customers a $10 credit.
A related nugget from CNBC’s Alex Sherman: YouTube reportedly hasn’t been happy with the low price of Peacock, which it feels was undercutting the value of YouTube TV. That may partially explain why Peacock drastically raised prices over the summer, though it doesn’t seem to have averted a potentially carriage dispute. We’ll know by the next newsletter whether the companies have worked out their differences.
Google’s AI TV push: After teasing a version of its Gemini AI on Google TV devices back in January, Google’s finally making it available, starting on new TVs from TCL. It’s not a full replacement for Google Assistant, which continues to handle searches for specific movies and shows, but will handle general information queries along with recommendation-related ones such as “suggest a movie like Jurassic Park, but suitable for young children.”
Long-term, the goal is to turn TVs into persistent computing surfaces that can provide information and answer questions. I have my doubts about whether this is something people want, but corporate mandates to stick AI everywhere means we’ll find out one way or another. Beyond TCL TVs, Gemini will also make its way to new Hisense TVs, the Google TV Streamer box, and Walmart’s Onn 4K Pro in the future.
More catch-up
- DirecTV’s streaming app is now available on Vizio TVs.
- Monumental Sports Network may go dark on YouTube TV and Hulu due to a carriage dispute.
- Rumor: Netflix will stream Yankees vs. Giants exclusively on opening day next year.
Save more money
This section of the newsletter has some affiliate links, which earn me a commission if you wind up buying or subscribing to something.
Starz is currently offering the best deal I’ve seen all year. New and former subscribers can get one year for $12, down from the usual $70 per year.
To get the deal, you must sign in or create an account, then choose the “Starz Annual” plan. (There’s also a $1 per month offer, but only for three months.)
Other notable deals:
- Annual Plex Passes: 40% off for one year ($42 instead of $70). Here’s an explainer on what a Plex Pass is.
- DirecTV Genre Packs: You can still get two months of MySports for $60 per month, or two months of MyEntertainment for $30 per month. New subscribers only.
- Fire TV device deals: Fire TV Stick HD is back to $18, the 4K model is down to $25, and the 4K Max is on sale for $40.
- Roku Streaming Stick Plus returns to $29.
As always, I keep a full list of up-to-date deals on my website.
This free tool just saved me $200
This week in my Advisorator newsletter, I wrote about a virtual credit card with spending limits spared me from getting seriously burned by a sneaky subscription charge.
I’ve previously written about Privacy Cards in the context of streaming, but I’ve since found it useful in other scenarios as well, and it’s been a while since I’ve done an explainer on how it all works. Read the story here →
Thanks for reading!
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Until next week,
Jared