Disney Plus expected price hikes

Disney+ (plus) streaming service subscribers in South Africa should brace themselves for a possible price hike in the coming months.

Walt Disney, has announced a planned price hike while also introducing an Ad-Supported Disney+ subscription as an alternative, in the US on December 8.

On December 8, Disney+ will introduce its ad-supported subscription to provide viewers with an alternative to suit their pockets.

“With our new ad-supported Disney+ offering and an expanded lineup of plans across our entire streaming portfolio, we will be providing greater consumer choice at a variety of price points to cater to the diverse needs of our viewers and appeal to an even broader audience,” said Kareem Daniel, Chairman, Disney Media & Entertainment Distribution.

How much will it cost?

Disney says it plans to raise the price of Disney Plus to $10.99 a month, up from its current price of $7.99 a month in December, a move to restructure its pricing options, which will soon include a possible $7.99 a month ad-supported tier.

This works out to a $3 hike which translates to around R 50 in the SA.

Currently the price for a monthly subscription for Disney+ costs R119 ($7.47) while it costs R1,190 ($74.64) per year.

If we add the projections, this could mean viewers could expect to pay around R 170 a month for the streaming service, and less for the ad-supported version.

Earlier in the year Walt Disney confirmed the expansion of its streaming service Disney+ to 42 new countries, including 6 African countries, Morocco, Libya, Egypt Algeria, Tunisia and South Africa.

Launched in the US, the streaming service is currently in around 64 countries. Their service allows users to stream across four devices and access unlimited downloads across 10 devices.

The streaming service launched in May, and is packed with exclusive original content from Disney, Marvel, Pixar and National Geographic.

The company is expected to debut I Am Groot, Lightyear, Lego Star Wars Summer Vacation, She Hulk, and Andor throughout August.

They always grow up so fast. 🪴 Start streaming ‘Groot’s First Steps’ from Marvel Studios’ #IAmGroot, a collection of five Original shorts, streaming 10 August on #DisneyPlusZA pic.twitter.com/z86jXuuQAN

— Disney+ (@disneyplusza) August 8, 2022

While the global streaming service increases market share globally, it has been met with a few issues nationally since the launch of the streaming service.  Numerous users have reported some glitches since its launch in May.

It’s on the South African Disney+ apps ratings and reviews on Google Play that you see some frustrated users.

Some disgruntled user wrote:

“Great, when it works. When it works, I can cast it to my Vizio TV and it runs smoothly. However, recently I’ve been getting the infinite loading screen on the mobile app. I can’t even go into my settings on the app or log out. My downloaded shows won’t play either which makes me really mad. I would like another patch/update for this sooner rather than later. Downloading shows: it can take a while to download longer episodes like I did for FATWS. You can choose where it downloads to.”

While another wrote:

“out of all of the streaming services I’m forced to download to watch stuff, this one is the worst if you aren’t getting a good signal. instead of giving options on lowering video quality, it opts to pause… a lot… making it unwatchable at times. but when I switch to any of the other streamers, they play just fine, and have a picture quality that still looks good on my phone.”

Disney replied: “We’ve been fixing things. A bug fix here. An update there. We hope you find your streaming experience even better.”

Also read: What to know about Disney+ in South Africa: price, content, and launch day

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