Disney to launch ad-supported Disney+ on December 8
Disney+ will introduce an ad-supported tier in the U.S. on December 8 at a cost of $7.99/month, while its ad-free Disney+ tier jumps from $7.99/month to $10.99/month. Disney’s other DTC services also will see price hikes – Hulu with ads increases from $6.99/month to $7.99/month; Hulu ad-free from $12.99/month to $14.99/month and ESPN+ from $6.99/month to $9.99/month. The company also updated its streaming packages and prices across Hulu, ESPN+ and the Disney Bundle.
The NPD Take:
- AVOD is increasingly being used to retain and attract price sensitive subscribers as the cost of programming (and everything else) rises.
- As with HBO Max before, Disney is leveraging an ad-supported tier to minimize churn among their growing (+15.5M subscriptions in Q3) base.
Walmart bundles up for the cooler weather
Starting September 1, Walmart will bundle Paramount+ into its Walmart+ online membership program at no additional cost to consumers. The streaming service with limited ads costs $4.99/month as a standalone service. Launched two years ago, Walmart+ is similar in concept to Amazon Prime, now offering customers a streaming service like Prime Video along with free shipping on purchases.
The NPD Take:
- It’s all about the bundle. Paramount+ will be a nice value-add to Walmart’s Plus customers and could also entice new sign-ups for the retail giant.
YouTube advances plans for streaming video marketplace
YouTube is proceeding with plans to launch a marketplace that will allow users to subscribe to video streaming services. The “channel store” as referred to by YouTube, is expected to launch this autumn. YouTube is in talks with entertainment companies about participating in the platform. The YouTube channel store would offer marketing opportunities for streaming services as consumers could watch trailers of shows or movies free on YouTube and then easily pay to subscribe to the service.
The NPD Take:
- Google is jumping in with Apple, Amazon and Roku to be another distribution point for DTC channels. This demonstrates the opportunity for revenue share and importance of third-party distribution channels.