A dollar may not seem like much, but it’s important for consumers who run out of wallets for every new streaming service that pops up.
But the price hike may be the first of many to come as the service and extensive content library continues to expand.
“The pricing strategy did what it had to do”
According to Andrew Hare, a senior vice president of research at media company Magid, that success gave Disney + “pricing power,” where it was able to raise prices just over a year after launch.
“Disney + has been hugely successful since its launch, I think even the most optimistic believers in the product are moving forward,” said Hare. “The pricing strategy did what it was supposed to do. It brought in a huge amount of people and almost immediately Disney + competed with the best streaming services.”
But now things have changed. Disney’s goal is not to prove that a traditional media company can adapt to the future of streaming. Like many of its other space rivals, Disney’s new goal is to own a bigger piece of the streaming pie to challenge Netflix’s spot at the top.
Price hikes, even small ones, can help with that.
More more more
To stand out, streaming companies need content that is both compelling and worth signing up for.
Disney has that with original hits like “The Mandalorian” and “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier”, as well as the contents of the library.
But streaming success is all about more, more, more.
So the $ 1 surge on Friday is probably just the beginning. However, that doesn’t mean you have to break the bank for a Disney + subscription.
Hare believes there could be even more price increases in the future of Disney +, but “it could also mean that consumers will downsize other services to ensure they keep Disney + at the top of their paid services.”
“Disney + will probably still be overpriced when you consider the fandom and content,” he said. “It is now a proven and formidable streaming service and will be able to exercise pricing power in the future even as competition in streaming gets fiercer.”