Disney has raised the price of its ad-free Disney+ subscription once again, with the new rate taking effect immediately, according to Bloomberg. The no-ads tier moves from $18.99 a month to $21.49 β a nearly 13 percent increase for subscribers who already absorbed a string of annual hikes.
The bump lands at an awkward moment for a company whose streaming division has spent years trying to convince investors it can turn a profit without bleeding customers dry. Disney+ launched in 2019 at $6.99 a month. Subscribers who want to skip commercials now pay more than triple that figure.
Anger Spills Onto Social Media
Reaction online was swift and blunt, following a pattern that has played out after each successive price increase. Breitbart reported that users flooded social platforms to complain, with many framing the hikes as paying more for less. One widely shared complaint accused the company of “producing dogs**t content and making you pay double for it” β a sentiment echoed across replies and quote-posts aimed at the Disney+ and Hulu accounts.
The frustration is not confined to the headline price. Subscribers have watched the service’s catalogue strategy shift toward franchise extensions, sequels, and library content, while the annual increases have become so regular that many users now treat them as a fall ritual rather than a surprise.
Streaming’s Costs Outpace Cable’s Old Playbook
The bigger picture is that streaming, once sold as the cheap alternative to bloated cable packages, has been climbing at a rate that makes the old cable model look restrained. The Hollywood Reporter has noted that streaming prices have risen at roughly three times the rate of inflation.
Apple TV+ is a case in point. It debuted at $4.99 a month in 2019 and has since tripled in price. HBO Max, which launched in 2020, is something of an outlier β it has largely held near its original price point while rivals pushed through repeated increases.
Disney’s ad-supported Disney+ tier, meanwhile, now runs $11.99 a month, up from the service’s original $6.99 entry price. Ad-free viewing sits well above $20.
For consumers, the arithmetic has become harder to justify. A household stacking three or four services can now approach or exceed what a traditional cable package once cost, without the channel bundling or the DVR that came with it. That comparison is exactly the one streaming providers spent a decade promising would never happen.
What Disney Gets in Return
There is a business logic to the increases, even if it lands badly with subscribers. Streaming margins remain thin, content budgets are enormous, and Wall Street has rewarded services that demonstrate pricing power over those that chase subscriber counts at any cost. Raising prices on the most loyal customers β the ones who pay extra specifically to avoid ads β is the fastest lever a company has.
The risk is churn. Every increase gives subscribers a reason to re-evaluate what they are actually watching, and a service whose recent output has drawn as much mockery as praise is more vulnerable to that calculation than one riding a genuine cultural moment. The social media backlash may be loud, but cancellation is quiet β and it is the number that ultimately matters.
Disney has not signalled any plans to reverse course. For now, the $21.49 rate stands, and the comment sections are doing what they have done every year: telling the company exactly what subscribers think of the trade.
Source: www.breitbart.com β https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2026/09/24/users-crush-disney-hulu-for-raising-prices-again-producing-dogst-content-and-making-you-pay-double-for-it/