--- title: Price increase? Disney fans are nonplussed - The Hustle description: Very few Disney+ subscribers blinked when streaming prices sharply increased. image: https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/797151777-HS-News-Brief_2023-03-19T235355.687Z.webp --- # Price increase? Disney fans are nonplussed ![Ben Berkley](https://53.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/53/assets/hubspot.com/web-team/WBZ/HubSpot%20Media/Blog%202021/Images/Nav/Optimized/TheHustle_Icon_Dark.svg) [Ben Berkley](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/author/ben-berkley) Published: March 20, 2023 Updated: October 11, 2023 Immediately add this to all business school curricula: When you have a tiny facsimile of Yoda on your side, the laws of pricing gravity don’t apply. ![Disney+ price hike](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hs-fs/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/797151777-HS-News-Brief_2023-03-19T235355.687Z.webp?width=595&height=400&name=797151777-HS-News-Brief_2023-03-19T235355.687Z.webp) Prices for an ad-free Disney+ subscription went up 38% last December, and yet the service — streaming home to Star Wars, Marvel, Pixar, and more — retained 94% of its subscribers, [per](https://www.wsj.com/articles/disney-users-digested-the-streaming-services-recent-price-jump-6dbf637a?curator=MatthewKeys) *The Wall Street Journal*. Only 5% of users balked at the new $10.99/mo. charge and canceled. Less than 1% switched to the cheaper version with ads ($7.99/mo.). **This doesn’t mean the ad-supported version isn’t working** Data from Antenna [shows](https://www.antenna.live/post/the-launch-of-ad-supported-disney-and-the-rise-of-avod) the Disney+ “Basic” offering gaining traction. - So far, 36% of new sign-ups have gone this less costly route. By comparison, adoption rates for HBO Max’s ad-bedazzled offering hover around 21%. - Across its full streaming portfolio, Disney customers remain ever-increasing — Mickey and friends entered 2023 with 235.7m subs, [per](https://www.indiewire.com/2023/03/whos-winning-the-streaming-wars-revenue-subscribers-netflix-disney-1234813738/) *IndieWire*. A Peter Pan-like dedication to youth helps: About half of Disney+ subscribers are families with children. **All encouraging news for the people who really make dreams come true: Disney investors** Streaming is an expensive game — the company segment housing Disney+ has lost nearly $10B since 2019, per *WSJ*. Widening its audience base and ad revenues through this new model is meant to help Disney close this gap. - Plus: Existing Disney+ audiences not flinching at price increases may enable further bumps. (Case in point: $56 Disneyland tickets [in 2005](https://ktla.com/news/california/this-is-how-much-disneyland-tickets-have-increased-since-the-park-opened/) vs. today’s $104 starting price. The park is still packed day in, day out.) 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Always free. 100% fresh. No bullsh*t. JOIN FREE ### 100% Free CRM Nurture and grow your business with customer relationship management software. Signup for a free account Close modal ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@type" : "BlogPosting", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Ben Berkley", "url" : "https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/news/author/ben-berkley" }, "datePublished" : "2023-03-20T07:32:29.000Z", "headline" : "Price increase? 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