Disney to raise prices of streaming services
TheStreet’s Conway Gittens brings you the biggest news of the day, including what investors are watching and why Disney is hiking the price of all of its streaming services.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00I'm Conway Gittins reporting from the New York Stock Exchange.
00:02Here's what we're watching on the street today.
00:04Wall Street is in recovery mode, helped by the latest
00:07round of corporate earnings.
00:09E-commerce platform Shopify posted a better than expected
00:1221% jump in second quarter revenue.
00:15Lyft topped sales forecasts.
00:17And for the first time in the company's history,
00:19it posted a net profit.
00:22And speaking of auspicious milestones,
00:24Walt Disney's streaming service is
00:26profitable for the first time since launching
00:29Disney Plus back in 2019.
00:32The Disney streaming bundle, which
00:33includes Disney Plus, Hulu, and ESPN Plus,
00:37saw a quarterly operating profit of $47 million.
00:41In a statement from CEO Bob Iger's executive team,
00:44quote, the combination of exceptional content
00:47and a broad brand portfolio is the key to our success
00:51as we build streaming into a profitable growth
00:53business for the company over the long term.
00:55We were pleased to see our combined streaming
00:57business profitable in the third quarter,
01:00ahead of our guidance, and we remain
01:02on track for that profitability to improve in Q4.
01:06Disney says its streaming business
01:07is benefiting from a positive overflow from its film
01:10business.
01:11It says it saw a spike in new subscribers
01:14eager to catch up before sequels or new installments
01:16in a franchise hit the big screen.
01:18However, the monthly price tag for access to all that content
01:22is going up.
01:23Disney Plus with ads will go to $9.99 from $7.99 in October.
01:28Without ads, the price goes up to $15.99 from $13.99.
01:33Hulu goes to $9.99 with ads, and $18.99 without.
01:38ESPN Plus will go up a buck to $11.99.
01:41And in an attempt to better compete with Netflix,
01:44a new Disney bundle that includes
01:46Max from Warner Brothers Discovery
01:48will cost $30 a month.
01:51That'll do it for your daily briefing from the New York
01:53Stock Exchange.
01:54I'm Conway Gittins with The Street.