Disney is offering a limited-time, 3-year Disney+ subscription for $169.99. That’s $40 off the list price of $209.99, which translates to less than $5 per month.
A Disney spokesperson told Gizmodo that the deal, a Founders Circle promotion for Disney Fan Club members, was active until October 11th, however,
- It appears that individuals can still now purchase the subscription at the discounted $169.99 rate, even without being a member of the Disney Fan Club.
- As of October 15th, the offer is still valid via this link using the promo code “PARKSPASS3YEARS” It’s worth noting that this deal does not include Hulu and ESPN+, which will be included in a Disney+ bundle for $13 when the service launches November 12th.
Source: Gizmodo
The Take
There’s a lot of hype surrounding the launch of Disney+, which is less than a month away. The service has already soft-launched in The Netherlands and pre-orders are open, but the company’s not done trying to lure subscribers in with discounted deals. Disney previously offered a similar three-year bundle this summer to its D23 Disney Fan Club Members, which broke down to $3.92 per month.
As the streaming wars intensify, so will subscriber churn as customers are expected to jump between multiple subscription video services, making “seasonal subscriptions” a thing. The average SVOD service churn rate has hovered around 18% for years, according to Kaltura.
The 3-year, $5 per month subscription deal is part of land grab strategy that Disney will parlay into leverage it can use against companies like Apple and Comcast. Additionally, by requiring subscribers to pre-pay $170 upfront, Disney’s making moves to eliminate churn immediately from the get-go.
According to a UBS survey, Disney+ could be looking at 54 million U.S. subscribers, after 43% of Americans said they’re “extremely likely” or “somewhat likely” to pay for new streaming service.
No matter how you slice all this, it’s not good for Netflix. In its Q2 earnings report in July, Netflix stated that it lost customers for the first time as a result of its content lineup and price hikes. Notably, Netflix reports its Q3 earnings tomorrow October 16th.
Disney is taking shots at Netflix outside of streaming by banning Netflix ads from airing on channels such as ABC, FX and National Geographic.
There’s lot of uncertainties here, including whether or not Disney+ will be available on Fire TV, but one thing we’re pretty confident about is that you shouldn’t expect Disney+ to be priced under $5 forever. Even the regular price $6.99 per month will most likely increase at some point.
By the way, yesterday Disney announced every movie and TV show available to stream in the US on day one.
