Disney to streaming customers: Bundle up, or else

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.

(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 it 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.

Disney price hikes compared

Here’s a full list of Disney’s 2025 streaming price hikes, which take effect on or after October 21:

• As before, the “Duo” bundle of Disney+ and Hulu is only $1 more than getting either service a la carte, either with or without ads.
• On their own, Disney+ and Hulu will become $2-per-month pricier with ads, but as a bundle the price only increases by $2 per month total.
• Although ad-free Disney+ is getting a $3-per-month price hike, the bundled price for ad-free Disney+ and Hulu stays the same.
• While the cost of Disney’s “Trio” bundles with ESPN Select are increasing by $3 per month, newly launched bundles with ESPN Unlimited (which includes all of ESPN’s cable programming) aren’t changing. (A limited-time promo also knocks the price ESPN Unlimited, Disney+, and Hulu down to $30 per month for one year.)
• Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav recently argued that HBO Max is “way underpriced.” Don’t be surprised if the new bundle price accounts for an eventual HBO Max price hike.

Pushing bigger bundles

The overall trend is similar to what played out with ad-supported streaming plans several years ago. Originally pitched by programmers as a way to bring streaming prices down, in the end they merely provided cover for more price hikes. (To wit: At $12-per-month, Disney+ with ads costs nearly twice what the ad-free version sold for in 2019.)

Looking ahead, we’re likely to see a bigger push toward larger TV packages with more streaming services thrown in. An early example is DirecTV’s MyEntertainment plan, which includes ad-supported Disney+, Hulu, and HBO Max; plus, a collection of cable news and entertainment channels (no sports or local broadcasts) for $35 per month. The cost for that package is not increasing.

Likewise, Spectrum has packed a slew of streaming services into its TV Select plans, whose non-promotional rates start at $125 per month. The streaming offerings include all of Disney’s services, HBO Max, Paramount+, Peacock, and AMC+, but of course require paying for an entire cable TV package.

Comcast, meanwhile, is doing a $15-per-month bundle of Netflix, Peacock, and Apple TV+ for Xfinity internet customers. That’s only $4 per month more than the standalone cost of Peacock after it drastically raised prices over the summer.

Disney’s latest round of price hikes will inevitably push more people toward bundling, and that’s by design. With ever-higher standalone rates, these bundles are starting to feel less like a deal and more like a necessity.

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