The Walt Disney Company is raising prices for its Disney+ streaming services, even though it lost 300,000 subscribers in the United States and Canada in the latest quarter.
Disney’s third-quarter earnings report on Aug. 9 revealed a revenue plunge across the board, except at its international theme parks.
The price hike comes after Disney reported that its streaming business remains unprofitable, despite narrowing its revenue losses in the third quarter.Disney+ Raises for the Second Time in Less Than a Year
The House of Mouse’s streaming service’s ad-free subscription channel will now cost $13.99 starting Oct. 12, an increase of $3 per month.
This is the second time in less than a year that Disney has raised the price of its streaming service. In December, the company hiked the price of its ad-free service to $10.99 from $7.99.
Disney+ subscriptions fell by 300,000, to 46 million in North America, while Netflix toted about 76 million domestic subscribers in the same quarter.
A plunge in U.S. subscribers appears to be a sign for rough waters ahead, as audience numbers have stagnated over the past few quarters.Meanwhile, the network’s worldwide subscriptions fell 24 percent for the period, mostly due to the end of Disney’s contract with Hotstar in India.
The subscriber losses are an ominous sign, as the studio continued to pour billions of dollars into new streaming content that has flopped with viewers.
