Disney+ Raises Prices, Following Terms of Service Changes Forcing European Subscribers to Watch Ads

Disney+ is making an annual habit of hiking up its prices — per Bloomberg, the streaming service is now increasing the price of its ad-free premium plan from $18.99 to $21.49, a jump of 13%. As Variety notes, this means the price of Disney+ has literally doubled since 2023, when ad-free streaming cost $10.99.

Additionally, the ad-supported plans for stand-alone Hulu and Disney+ are increasing by $0.50 to $12.49, and the ad-free Disney+/Hulu bundle is rising to $21.99. The only plan not changing its prices is the ad-supported Disney+/Hulu bundle, which continues to cost $12.99.

This comes after last week’s discovery that Disney+ had changed its terms and services agreement for European subscribers with new language declaring that “may include promotional content, sponsorships, and advertisements before/after playback of Content and in channels, live/as-live, special events, and any third-party services content.” In short: Even if you’re paying to not have ads, Disney+ still has the right to show you ads.

As of writing, that language does not currently exist in the American Disney+ legal agreement. However, there is a section that declares, “Additionally, ‘no ads’ or ‘ad-free’ Service Tiers may contain limited promotional content, such as brief clips about the Bundles (including messages promoting an upgrade thereto) and other content available on any services associated with the Bundles, and branded content, product integrations, or sponsorship messaging.” Because if it’s advertising for Disney+, it doesn’t count as an ad, of course.

Toy Story 5 did just make its Disney+ streaming debut. Revisit our review for more.