The Walt Disney Company knows two things. Terrible Star Wars shows, and price hikes. Unfortunately, we’re dealing with the latter after the company announced that its US-based Disney+ subscribers would see an extra $2 taken out of their bank accounts every month – the fourth such hike to strike the US since the platform’s launch.
South Africa has fortunately dodged this bullet. That doesn’t mean we’ve won the war just yet. Disney Plus has long since been considered a major money-loser for the House of Mouse. And we all know how it feels to see profit margins in the red. If we’re not careful, we might just get that fourth season of The Mandalorian.
Miss me with that, Disney
US subscribers can expect their plans for Disney+, Hulu, ESPN and any accompanying bundles to all rise come 17 October 2024 (you can see official pricing here). It’s not all bad news, though. Disney has at least brought something to reward their loyalty, despite charging them even more for essentially the same service.
How do continuous playlists sound? Like a waste of money? Well, you’re getting them anyway, and you best be grateful. Starting on 4 September, US customers will have access to ‘continuous playlists’, in which Disney will pre-select a whole lot of content ahead of time so you can truly switch your brain off. It’s mightily similar to the company’s FAST channel idea – though we’re not sure where non-paying customers come in.
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The first of these playlists will be geared towards pre-school age content before it brings in ‘Seasonal’, ‘Epic Stories’, ‘Throwbacks’ and ‘Real Life’ playlists later down the line. Oh, and customers will have unfettered access to the ABC News Live channel. That’s big, guys.
As we’ve already mentioned, South Africa has been left untouched. The last time a price hike befell our residents was back in June 2023, when the price of a monthly subscription rose to R140/m, up from the R120/m it was previously.