We already knew that when Disney+ launches on November 12, it will cost $6.99 per month or $69.99 for a year, but now Disney CEO Bob Iger has announced a bundle package which includes Disney+ as well as ad-supported Hulu, and ESPN+ will be $12.99 a month. Ad-supported Hulu costs $5.99 a month. ESPN+ is $4.99. Unfortunately, there is not yet a plan to offer a bundle with Disney+ and the non-ad-supported version of Hulu, which costs $11.99 a month. (Like, for instance, one that scraps ESPN+, because who even wants that?!)
Even at $12.99, this bundle will be cheaper than Netflix’s premium package which costs $13.99 a month.
Disney came to own all of Hulu after acquiring 21st Century Fox. Comcast owned 30%, but after Disney, who already owned 30%, acquired Fox’s 30%, Comcast sold its interest to the House of Mouse.
Disney+ will offer almost everything that Disney has ever produced, plus the properties they have acquired over the years, including all of the ‘Star Wars’ films and various Marvel projects. In addition, there is a plethora of new programming that will be offered, starting with ‘The Mandalorian’, the first live-action ‘Star Wars’ TV show, as well as numerous Marvel Studios TV shows– including ‘WandaVision’, ‘Loki’, ‘The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’, and the animated ‘What If?’— which will connect directly to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
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Hulu already offers two seasons of ‘Runaways’, another Marvel creation, although the show is only loosely connected to the movies. Two new live-action shows— ‘Ghost Rider’ and ‘Helstrom’– are on their way, along with four adult-targeted cartoons— ‘Hit Monkey’, ‘Howard the Duck’, ‘M.O.D.O.K.’, and the ‘Tigra and Dazzler Show’. But like ‘Runaways’, these won’t directly connect to the movies or the shows on Disney+.
The announcement of this bundle package comes after Disney stocks fell, for the first quarter following the acquisition of 21st Century Fox. This is after ‘Avengers: Endgame’ became the highest-grossing movie ever, ‘Captain Marvel’ and ‘Aladdin’ made more than a billion dollars each, and ‘Toy Story 4’ is just shy. No reason was given for this stock drop, but we’re all looking at you, ‘Dark Phoenix’.
But stock value may continue to drop as Disney is so focused on streaming. The largest amount of its expenditure over the last year has been in creating Disney+. Now that it also has Hulu and is investing so much into both creating streaming outlets and creating very expensive original programming for them, if this doesn’t pan out the way Disney intends, all the cinematic blockbusters in the world won’t keep their stocks from further dropping.
What do you think? Does this $12.99 package sound appealing?
Source: Axios
