Hulu to add Disney+ and ESPN+ to live TV bundle, hike price by $5

Hulu is changing the structure of its base live TV subscription offering and in December will add access to Disney+ and ESPN+ as part of a package deal that costs customers an extra $5 a month.

In an email to customers on Friday, the Disney subsidiary said Hulu + Live TV will no longer be offered as a standalone product, with Disney+ and ESPN+ to be tacked on as a package deal starting Dec. 21. The change raises monthly fees by $5, bringing the ad-supported tier to $69.99 per month and the ad-free offering to $75.99 per month, reports The Hollywood Reporter.

Users with existing Disney+ or ESPN+ subscriptions will see those products rolled into the live TV plan. Customers who subscribe to Hulu's live TV and Disney+ package are in for a price reduction from the current $72.99 a month for the ad-supported tier and $78.99 per month without ads.

The change appears to be part of Disney's strategy to boost Disney+ subscriber numbers.

Earlier in November, Disney reported the slowest sequential growth for Disney+ in the service's short history. Previous quarters saw booming demand that gained 100 million subscribers in just 16 months, vastly outstripping Disney's own internal estimates. For the most recent period, however, Disney+ managed to add only 2.1 million new users, finishing September well below Wall Street expectations with 118.1 million subscribers.

According to Disney's quarterly report, four million people pay for the Hulu + Live TV package, meaning net Disney+ adds as a result of the December change will be less than that figure because some of those users already subscribe to Disney+. Disney has not revealed subscriber numbers for the Hulu + Live TV and Disney+ bundle.

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13 Comments

docno42 3757 comments · 16 Years

About 2 years ago

The house of mouse is desperate to prop those flagging Disney+ subscription numbers up, eh?

chadbag 2001 comments · 13 Years

Disney: de-politicize your "content" and you'll see your subscription numbers flourish.

MustSeeUHDTV 304 comments · 7 Years

Those packages are getting to be cable TV prices….swapping hundreds of channels for a few streaming content libraries.

neverindoubt 120 comments · 16 Years

MustSeeUHDTV said:

Those packages are getting to be cable TV prices….swapping hundreds of channels for a few streaming content libraries.

Hulu+Live TV is hundreds of channels. It’s got a bundle of linear TV channels just like a cable package.

But your point remains. Hulu+Live TV plus internet access costs as much or more than a cable package plus internet access.

Marvin 15186 comments · 18 Years

docno42 said:

The house of mouse is desperate to prop those flagging Disney+ subscription numbers up, eh?

I wouldn't describe 118 million paying subscribers as flagging. The main problem with Disney+ is pricing it too low. They make $4.12/m per subscriber. For Hulu, they make $12.75/m just for the streaming and $84.89/m for streaming plus live TV.

Disney+ = 118m x $4.12 = $486m
ESPN+ = 17m x $4.74 = $80m
Hulu streaming = 39m x $12.75 = $497m
Hulu live + streaming = 4m x $84.89 = $339m

They have 29x more subscribers on Disney+ than Hulu + Live but only make 43% more revenue.

https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/app/uploads/2021/11/q4-fy21-earnings.pdf

Currently they still make more revenue from the traditional TV network - $6.6b vs $4.5b (last quarter) - and they lost money on streaming. Last quarter net income for traditional network was $1.6b and $0.6b loss for streaming.

"The higher loss at Disney+ was due to higher programming and production, marketing and technology costs."

I think they are pricing these services too low. People are accustomed to paying $50+/month for regular network TV. The lower price can boost subscriber numbers but it's no good if the service loses money because long-term they don't have the budget to invest in good content. Disney+ has Premier Access for new movies but that's still pay-per-movie and way too much for a single movie.

There's a middle ground somewhere for higher subscription options that allows for more premium content. The subscriber numbers will be lower at the higher price but it shouldn't impact revenue much as Hulu shows. Disney makes more revenue from Hulu with 1/3 the subscribers just due to the higher subscription price.

Adding Disney+ and ESPN+ will be to drive some of the much higher subscription volume on those services to the higher price tier. They have a few bundles that merge different services, the $10-20/m range is probably going to offer the best content value for subscribers and sustainable revenue for providers.