Another week, another streaming service price hike.
Disney is raising the price of Disney+ in Canada, with new pricing on the streaming service’s website and emails hitting subscribers’ inboxes. In the emails, Disney said it’s updating prices to “keep bringing you brand new Originals, the latest blockbuster movies and most loved binge-worthy series.”
The increase works out to about $1/mo or $10/year, depending on your subscription type. Here’s how the price increases break down:
- Disney+ Standard With Ads: $8.99/mo (previously $7.99/mo).
- Disney+ Standard: $12.99/mo or $129.99/year (previously $11.99/mo or $119.99/year).
- Disney+ Premium: $15.99/mo or $159.99/year (previously $14.99/mo or $149.99/year).
It’s worth noting that Disney’s recently added ‘Extra Member’ fees aren’t changing (yet), so it’ll still cost $6.99/mo to add a Disney+ Standard With Ads member, or $7.99/mo to add a Disney+ Standard or Premium member.
Disney’s new Disney+ pricing as of October 28th, 2024.
On Disney’s help page about the price increase, the company notes that the prices are active for new subscriptions as of October 17th, while existing subscribers will see the increase on their renewal on or after November 21, 2024.
This is Disney’s second price hike this year, with the company previously increasing the price of its streaming service in February 2024. However, Disney announced that price increase in 2023.
To put this in perspective, at the beginning of 2024, Disney+ Premium cost $119.99/year and users could freely share their Disney+ account with family members. Now, it costs $40 more and customers have to pay extra to share their account with family members.
And Disney isn’t the only streaming service raising prices. Spotify just raised prices for Canadians as well, claiming it was so the company could “continue to innovate on [its] product offerings and features.”
However, the more likely reason for the price hike is a response to Canada’s new Online Streaming Act, which forces foreign streaming companies like Spotify and Disney+ to pay a five percent levy on Canadian revenue. Money generated from the levy will go towards local news production and content. The Digital Media Association (DiMA), which represents streaming like Spotify, Apple, YouTube and others in Canada, launched a campaign to get Canadians to contact their MPs to “Scrap the Streaming Tax,” while the Motion Picture Association-Canada (MPA-Canada), which represents Netflix, Disney+ and others, filed two legal challenges over the ruling.
Meanwhile, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) argued that the Online Streaming Act would bring in $200 million to Canada’s broadcasting system each year and help balance the playing field between foreign streamers and traditional broadcasters.
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