The Walt Disney Company said Tuesday that it would raise the price of its streaming services in the United States, including Disney+ and bundles that include Hulu and ESPN Select.
Starting Oct. 21, the monthly price of a Disney+ plan with ads will rise by $2 to $11.99, and an ad-free plan will cost $18.99, $3 more than now. Packages combining Disney+ with Hulu, ESPN or HBO Max will also become more expensive, according to Disney’s website.
Disney has routinely hiked prices, but the announcement of the latest increase has come at an awkward time for the company. There was uproar over its decision to suspend Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show on ABC over his comments last week about Charlie Kirk’s death, and there was an online campaign urging people to cancel their Disney+ subscriptions.
Mr. Kimmel returned to air on Tuesday.
It is the fourth consecutive year that Disney has raised its streaming prices since launching Disney+ in 2019. Other services like Netflix, YouTube TV and Amazon’s Prime Video have also regularly increased prices, along with cracking down on password sharing.
Disney did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside business hours. The company took full control of Hulu this year after ending a dispute over how much additional money it owed Comcast for the service. Disney said in August that it would wind down Hulu as a stand-alone app and integrate it fully into Disney+.
For the three months that ended in June, the company said Disney+ and Hulu had 183 million subscribers globally.
John Yoon is a Times reporter based in Seoul who covers breaking and trending news.
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