Come on up, we've got lots of Disney+ News to talk about including price rises, password crackdowns, profitability, live channels and much more. But before we go any further, make sure you do hit that subscribe button to keep up with the latest Disney+ News. Hi, it's Roger here, film what's on at Disney+.com. It's time for a quick Disney+ News roundup and there's a lot of stuff today because Disney's had its latest quarterly financial results and that's where we find out a lot of information. Disney did put out a little bit of extra information last night. So let's get into some good news first off. So if you like the idea of having live channels on Disney+ Good News, if you're in the United States in September, Disney+ will be adding ABC News live, going to be able to watch that directly within Disney+. Also, they're going to be adding curated lists. The first one's going to be like Disney Junior. They're also going to be adding some additional channels as well, including seasonal content, which will be a collection of seasonal themed content from across Disney+, epic stories, throwbacks and real life. Those four different channels are only going to be available to premium customers and they're going to be adding more at a later date. It's a little bit of a weird way of doing it. It's a curated list rather than a channel because they don't maybe want to get in on some issues with the cable platform, so therefore they're calling it something different. But this is basically a leanback experience where you can just sit back and it will just roll through. So this is essentially just a playlist, just going through show after show after show. I'm going to let again be a bit weird in terms of how they are operating this. Not a lot of channels. They're going to add some more. They're trying to increase engagement for the platform, trying to get more people to watch it. I'm not going to lie. I thought this was a bit weak. One channel for Disney Junior stuff and ABC News Live for core subscribers and an additional four channels at a later date for premium customers. Not a lot. I thought we were going to see a lot more. I thought 20, 30 plus channels. Instead, yeah, this is really lackluster. I don't think with the addition of ABC News Live, this is a good timing, especially with the upcoming presidential race coming up. Obviously in November, they want to be there for that one. Again, it offers more content, more things that you can watch different kinds of content. Though, I can see why they're giving away free. They give away on YouTube. That's where I watch it. But yeah, I think it's good that they're adding it, but they definitely seem to be staying away from the idea of them being channels. People don't get confused with Disney channel, etc. It's a little bit weird, not entirely convinced. Now, the thing is that was weird with this press release for this particular feature. It's a slipped in at the bottom. Well, because we're adding this, we're actually also going to be increasing the prices. It's like really you're going to try to sell the fact that this little thing that you're adding is worth of price rise. ABC News Live, you can watch live on YouTube for free. It's just a curated list. It is PR rubbish, basically, for that. They put the prices up. This is going to be coming in on October 17th in the United States. No word yet on if this is going to be happening internationally, but let's be honest. We know it's going to happen. We know price rises. They've been doing them annually, year on year. All the other streaming platforms are doing it. It's not just them. I know a lot of people are doing it. They've given us a couple of months notice, but obviously as well, it's only been nine months or so since the last price rise. By the time this comes in, it'll be about a year. As we know, everything is going up just this constant thing, and so they're putting their prices up. Again, with the United States, the pricing is a little bit funky because of all the different options that they provide. I mean, it's so confusing with the amount of different options. Generally, most of them are going out by about $1 for the ad tier one, a little bit more expensive if you don't have the ads. The core, like the phone standard with ads is now going up to $9.99. Hulu is also going to be going up to the same price. However, you can get them both together with the dual premium one for just $10.99 a month. Literally, this is such a way of trying to get you to have both platforms. I mean, let's put this. If you're paying $9.99 for Hulu AudisD+, you get one buck more and suddenly you've got both of them. Also, if you really want more, you can jump up to the max tier as well, get all three of them for $16.99. Probably the reason why it was a bit of a weird one. I put out an article about the fact that some data showed that the bundle for Disney Plus, Hulu and Max, seemed a little bit more expensive than it should be. Lo and behold, within a few hours, the price has gone up and therefore, that entire article is now devoid because now it does actually add up because they already baked in the price rise. Also, they're putting up the price of ESPN Plus. It's all going to be going up. It's definitely moving into the idea now that they want you. If you are just a Disney Plus subscriber to be looking at the idea of getting the bundle because that's where you're going to save some money or as long as I'm even saving money, you're going to be able to get a benefit. Some of the other things in terms of price rises just to put it into context. If you don't have ads, it's now going to cost you $15.99 a month. Now, when you think of how much Disney Plus was when it launched back in 2019 of $6.99, it has just gone up and up. Obviously, a lot of people are upset about this and naturally so. The fact we are getting a lot less content. It's definitely a really nasty price, but it's those bundles. It's those bundle prices that we're now looking at and that's what I should get. They're definitely pushing you to get those bundles. Hulu Live TV is going up. If you have the ad free version, that's just under $100 a month. Crazy. But also this kind of ties in with everything else of Disney Plus for the very first time and along with Hulu and ESPN Plus has just become profitable for the very first quarter and three months before they plan to. Way back in 2019, they said that by the end of 2024, the streaming division would be profitable. They've made it by a few months in advance, but they finally hit profitability. This time two years ago, they were losing about $1.5 billion a quarter. Now, they finally hit profitability and they want to keep adding to that. Obviously, these price rises will feed straight into that there. This is all part of it. It was also revealed that the past were crackdown is currently underway in many countries around the world and they've had no negative backlash to this. Then in September, it's going to be running out everywhere and that they expect will also see a rise in subscriptions just in time for the new price rise to come in. It's almost like they planned this stuff and so that will help Disney Plus and the other platforms continue to go into profitability and that's what they want. It's not just about just breaking into profitability. They want to start making major money and that is going to be a key thing that they're looking for, cutting back on their amount of spending. Generally, this is just all the spades paid. Prices are going up, costs are going down and all of that is going to mean that for us, Disney Plus subscribers, we're getting less stuff and we're getting more ads and we're paying more for it. Unfortunately, that just seems to be across the board for everything. No matter what you do, no matter what you, whatever is going on, generally, you are now having to pay more and you are getting less and that seems to be just the basics for this. Also during the quarterly results, it was real that Disney and Comcast are still at odds over the valuation of Hulu. They can't agree on it. They're still expecting that not to be resolved until 2025, which I think is a big core problem for this because they can't then merge Hulu and Disney Plus together fully until they get this stuff sorted with Comcast. That's why we never see them really advertise it on none of the press releases, none of the trailers. They never mention the fact that they're just not going near that one and I think there's probably some legal reasons why they can't do that one. Personally, I wouldn't have liked to have done these price rises and then when they do it, you go right, we're merging together because if you'd said, okay, you now get both for $10.99, that wouldn't have seen such a big price rise but, of course, they can still do this again when they do the final merger. It's messy. No, no, no about it. Ultimately, no, there is the counter argument to this. The thing it's a simple truth is Disney Plus needs to become profitable in order for it to survive. If the streaming division keeps losing money, this is just not long term, not going to work. This is why a lot of different companies are looking at their platforms and whether or not they can actually make money from this one. Disney has been spending billions and billions and billions to get here and now they're at a point now where they've reached the same crosshode and now it's about the growth and moving it to the next step. More consolidation, more cost cutting will help do that and definitely can see that it's now moving in the strong direction and it will kind of push now that Disney Plus is now profitable, Max is profitable, Netflix is profitable. We're really now seeing that shift away and the ones that aren't are going to be the ones that will probably drop off because essentially these can't run indefinitely as lost leaders. Disney also revealed that the success of Inside Out 2 and Deadpool and Wolverine had a really good result for them. There was more and more people watching the original films on Disney Plus. They were also able to add million plus subscribers. They feel fun the boost of it. Plus obviously they will get a boost when those films eventually arrive on Disney Plus. They also confirmed some new details on how many subscribers they've got. Now this is always a little bit difficult because it's always a little bit hit and miss in terms of how they do so. So overall they added just over 200,000 subscribers globally. Disney Plus now has 153.8 million subscribers globally as I said it's up about 200,000 from last quarter. Actually Disney Plus in the US and in Canada they actually were able to add 800,000 subscribers. However they did lose them internationally about 100,000 internationally but it was in India that they lost half a million subscribers in the last quarter. Again we've just seen this constant bleeding in India and I suspect we'll see some big changes when they move over to whatever they're doing with the style system. They were asked about it during the quarterly and they said no we're not doing we're not talking about that until it's finalized. So again not too sure but definitely seeing a big big shift in terms of Disney Plus now becoming profitable but we're still very much in limbo and Disney are very much looking out like all their big theatrical releases are just going to be a big boost for Disney Plus and that's how you're going to watch them. They're trying to improve engagement they're trying to get you to watch more of it and they're doing this through the introduction of the ESPN hub later this year the Hulu content ABC News Live the live channels they're all trying to get that engagement higher to get more money from advertising and unfortunately we're just in this weird bit where they can't really fully sort this out until they sort out that Comcast situation. I believe here we are over five years later we're still having to have this problem but overall it was a very good quarter for Disney especially from a streaming point of view becoming profitable three months early that is a really good side and for the long term it is really good. Unfortunately all the price rises and all the other bits of pieces aren't so good for us but you know swings and roundabouts what is good for the business ultimately will be better for us and yeah we're just seeing now just a big shift really in terms of the company but I'd love to know your thoughts on all of this in the comments below. I'm going to go check us out over at what's on Disney Plus dot com like, follow and subscribe and I shall see you guys soon. Later! [ Silence ]
