If you bundle your Disney Plus subscription with Hulu and ESPN, you will pay $13.99, which is the same $1 increase. In terms of value, this is still the best way to go, although we appreciate many people simply won’t want Hulu and ESPN. To reiterate, this price increase will arrive in March 2021 and, for now, you’ll only pay the regular $6.99 per month. Smart shoppers will sign up for a year’s subscription (opens in new tab) at the current cheaper price, if they want to keep their Disney Plus service all year. However, if you’re looking to stay flexible, you’ll need to pay the extra dollar. Price increases are fairly common among the best TV streaming services (opens in new tab), with Netflix having hiked up its prices (opens in new tab) on standard and premium services in 2020. That’s the pricing news. Disney also made some announcements around its TV and movie streaming content, and gave updates on several popular upcoming shows. In total, Disney plans to release approximately ten new Star Wars shows, ten new Marvel shows, and 15 Pixar or Disney live actions shows on the D+ platform over the “next few years”. The Star Wars shows include Rangers of the New Republic, which is set in the same timeline as The Mandalorian, and another project called Ahsoka, which features one of the main characters from The Clone Wars. There’s also a new Star Wars movie coming in 2023, called Rogue Squadron, which will be directed by Patty Jenkins of Wonder Woman fame. Marvel fans will be equally well catered for. There are upcoming shows like The Falcon and the Winter Solider, and Marvel What If?, which follows alternative versions of many popular Marvel characters from the movies. Wandavision, the first Marvel TV show on Disney Plus, is still slated for a January 2021 start, so comes in before the price increase. There are a bunch of Disney Live action movies due too, including Hocus Pocus 2, a prequel to The Lion King, and Lightyear - an origins story for Toy Story’s Buzz Lightyear. It’s all very exciting. Is Disney Plus worth the price of admission? Well, the standard price of $7.99 will still be cheaper than the $8.99 you pay for Netflix (opens in new tab)’s basic package, and you do get 4K streaming with Disney Plus (which isn’t included in Netflix Basic). Sure, the suite of content is narrower, and Disney’s TV library is weak, but we still think it’s a fair price for all this high-quality stuff.
