Households looking to subscribe to Disney+ will find the streaming site has increased its prices by over 33 per cent, as it adds an array of new shows to the platform under its Star banner.
Customers must now pay £7.99 a month, as opposed to £5.99, whilst yearly plans have also risen from £59.99 to £79.99.
However, it is not the only streaming service to have hiked its prices in recent times.
With more people relying on their TV’s for entertainment than ever before, This is Money takes a look at how much each provider is charging their customers and how much prices have increased in the last few years.
Disney+ is now adding Star to its service, with 75 new shows, but this means prices are rising
Disney+
As detailed above, Disney+ will now be £7.99 a month for new subscribers or £79.99 a year.
However, those who signed up last year and are due to have their subscription renewed will see no increase in the cost of their subscription until August.
The claimed reason for the hike is due to Disney+ creating Star, a hub within the streaming service for television and film content intended for an adult audience.
Included in the additional 75 shows are Desperate Housewives, Lost, Scandal and Atlanta.
Still on the service are hundreds of Disney films and TV shows as well as all of the Star Wars films, the Simpsons, the Marvel back catalogue and National Geographic shows.
It also now has a number of original TV shows and films including The Mandalorian and Soul.
Disney+ launched in the UK on March 24 last year, a day after the first national lockdown was announced, leading to an influx of subscribers.
The starting price was £5.99 a month or £59.99 for a year’s subscription.
| Service | Price per month |
|---|---|
| Disney+ | £7.99 |
| Netflix (standard package) | £9.99 |
| Amazon Prime Video | £7.99 |
| Now TV (Entertainment pass) | £9.99 |
| Licence fee | £13.13 |
| Total | £49.09 |
Stranger Things is just one of the popular Netflix original shows that customers pay for
Netflix
One of the most popular streaming services around the world, Netflix has hiked its prices a couple of times.
As of this month, it increased its monthly subscription costs. The standard package, which allows users to watch on two screens and in high definition, rose from £8.99 per month to £9.99 per month – a hike of £12-a-year.
The premium package, where users can watch on four screens and has 4K and HD content, increased from £11.99 per month to £13.99 per month – a jump of £24-a-year.
Those on its basic package, which means users can only watch on one screen, stayed at £5.99 a month.
It said it had to put a price hike in place due to the number of new TV shows and films it was making.
Amazon Prime Video
Amazon Prime members get free next day delivery but also access to Prime Video which has thousands of films and boxsets to watch.
This includes Amazon original series such as Carnival Row and Jack Ryan.
It is currently £7.99 a month or £79 a year although students can get it for just £3.99 a month.
The price has not increased since launching in the UK and it is not known if there will be one in the near future.
Amazon Prime Video is one of the only services that has not seen increases in price recently
Now TV
Now TV is popular for those who want access to a section of Sky channels but don’t want to pay for all of them.
Its popular Entertainment Pass, which hosts shows from Sky One, Sky Atlantic, FOX, SyFy and Discovery, last saw an increase in September 2020 of 11.1 per cent with prices rising from £8.99 to £9.99 a month.
This was the second increase in recent times with Now TV putting up the price of the Entertainment Pass from £7.99 in April 2019.
The Sky Cinema pass, which offers access to the latest films on the 12 Sky Cinema channels, also jumped from £9.99 to £11.99 – a rise of 20 per cent.
Sky Sports has also seen a hike with a day pass rising from £6.99 two years ago to £9.99 as of 2021.
The Sky Sports week pass also went up to £14.99 from £12.99 in early 2019 when it had been £10.99 until February 2018.
However, now a month pass is only available which currently costs £33.99 or £5.99 for those on a mobile month plan.
Meanwhile, the Hayu Pass, which gives customers access to a number of reality TV shows, also saw a hike of 25 per cent increase, rising from £3.99 a month to £4.99.
Hayu can also be bought separately for the same price.
And what about the BBC licence fee?
The licence fee is compulsory for households who watch live television. Income from the licence is primarily used to fund the television, radio and online services of the BBC.
In May 2016, the Government announced the licence fee would rise with inflation for the first five years of the Charter period as of 1 April 2017.
Since April 2020, the annual cost is £157.50 for a colour licence and £53 for a black and white licence.
The annual TV licence fee is to increase by £1.50, from £157.50 to £159, from 1 April 2021. This is the equivalent of £13.12 per month.
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