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All of Disney’s streaming services have announced price increases, with ESPN+ going up first starting today (August 23). ESPN+ is jumping from $6.99 to $9.99 per month. While Disney+ will be jumping from $7.99 to $9.99 per month as well. And Hulu will increase its price on the ad-supported tier from $6.99 to $7.99. While the ad-free tier will jump from $12.99 to $14.99 per month.
These are pretty big price hikes for all three streaming services, and not one that anyone is going to be happy about paying for. But as content continues to get more expensive – due to competition and of course inflation – this was due to happen. No one was really surprised at ESPN+ going up in price, since sports are generally pretty expensive to stream. And ESPN has signed quite a few deals lately to bolster its ESPN+ offering.
So what about the Disney+ bundle? Well, it’s going up, but not by as much as you’d expect.
There will be three Disney Bundles
Disney is going from offering one bundle that included all three services and a choice of ads or not on Hulu, to offering three bundles in October. So let’s go over each bundle.
Disney+ & Hulu
First up we have the brand new bundle, which is Disney+ and Hulu together. These both will be the ad-supported tier of each service. This is the first time that Disney has bundled Disney+ with Hulu, without ESPN+. And it’ll come in at $9.99 per month. This is going to be the best option for most people, as you’ll get both services for what should cost you $16, for only $10. That’s a really great deal.
Disney+, Hulu & ESPN+ with ads
Next, you can get all three, with ads – ESPN+ will have ads no matter what, since its live TV mostly. This is actually a bit cheaper than the original Disney Bundle, which was priced at $14.99 per month. This bundle is going to cost you $12.99 per month. Which is also a really great deal here. Seeing as Disney+ with ads is $8, Hulu with ads is also $8 and ESPN+ is $10. That’s would cost you $26, but with this bundle, you’re paying just $14.99, nearly half.
Disney+, Hulu (ad-free) and ESPN+ (with ads)
This is what Disney is calling their “premium” bundle, at least internally. It offers Disney+ and Hulu ad-free, and ESPN+ still has ads – there’s no ad-free version of ESPN+. This is going to cost you $19.99 per month, which is also a really good deal. Since Disney+ without ads is $10.99, Hulu ad-free is $14.99 and ESPN+ is $9.99. That would cost you $36 per month separately. But you can get it bundled together for under $20. That’s also nearly half off.
Disney bundles is the way to go
Given the data that I just laid out above, it’s pretty easy to see why a Disney Bundle is the way to go, versus getting just one of these three services. Even if you don’t want or don’t use ESPN+, getting Hulu and Disney+ together means you’re getting one of them for just $2 per month. And at $10 per month, the two will outperform what Netflix offers, for much less.
It does seem odd that the bundles are so much cheaper than just getting one of their services in most cases. This is likely because Disney wants you to be subscribed to more than one of their services to boost their numbers. But also to boost engagement on their services. If you have Hulu and only wanted Disney+, you’re probably still going to check out Hulu and see what’s available and start watching content there.
For example, I used to only subscribe to Disney+ (and had Hulu free from Spotify). But with Verizon, I am able to get the full Disney+ bundle for free, which includes all three services. Which means that I’m paying even less (just the difference of being on a more expensive Verizon plan), and get more than just Disney+. I even use ESPN+ from time to time, though that will probably increase over the fall, with the added sports that ESPN+ is getting this year.
The Disney Bundle is the best deal in streaming
When Disney+ first came out, I stated that it was the best deal in streaming. Considering how much content Disney+ had, and it was only $6.99 per month, it was pretty insane how good it was. Even with it going up to $9.99 per month, it’s still a really great deal (without ads). But the Disney Bundle has outdone it.
I firmly believe that the Disney+ and Hulu bundle for $9.99 is going to be the best bundle and likely most popular bundle when it launches in October. Not everyone is a sports fanatic, and a lot of the bigger games won’t be on ESPN+ anyways. But Disney+ and Hulu both offer plenty of great content for you to watch.
Should I sign up for a Disney Bundle?
You definitely should. If you have kids, Disney+ is great. If you are a Star Wars or Marvel fan, Disney+ is amazing. And then you can spend just a couple bucks more per month to get Hulu, which is also a great service to have. It has TV show episodes next day after they air for ABC, NBC and a few other networks as well. So it’s a great service to have if you are looking to cut the cord. But don’t really want to get a streaming Live TV service, or get an OTA antenna either.
The Disney+ and Hulu bundle for $9.99 is likely going to be its best and most popular of the bundles, at least until ESPN+ becomes a better competitor to linear TV sports channels like ESPN itself.