Existing ESPN+ subscribers will get official notification starting July 20 with the price hike taking effect on Aug. 23.
FuboTV is ditching its lowest-cost plan and migrating any current subscribers to its Pro plan, which costs around $5 more per month, effective May 1. The move to shift legacy customers comes after FuboTV previously stopped offering its Fubo Starter plan, with a price of about $65 per month, to new customers. Existing Fubo Starter plan customers (and those on earlier promotional bundles, including the Family, Entertainment and Starter Promo bundles) will be migrated to the $70 per month Fubo Pro plan starting with their next billing cycle after May 1.
The company said Friday that prices are going up by $1 to $2, depending on the plan. The “standard” plan that most people take is increasing by $1.50, to $15.50. The Canadian version is going up by the same amount in local currency, to $16.50 Canadian dollars. Price increases are becoming more of a regular feature at Netflix, which is facing saturation in the U.S. market. Of Netflix’s 213.5 million subscribers, some 74 million are in the U.S. and Canada. It got an influx of global subscribers early in the pandemic, but is investing in video games as it looks beyond movies and TV for growth.
As the calendar flips over to 2022, DirecTV customers will again see their rates go up — in some cases, as much as 10% — continuing its pattern of annual price hikes. The pay-TV provider is again blaming the increases on higher programming costs. The price increases will apply to most DirecTV plans and go into effect starting Jan. 23, 2022.
Exclusives
The streaming business is about to get a lot more expensive, if early signs of subscriber interest in premium content on HBO Max and Disney Plus force competitors to ante up to attract and keep subscribers. The question is, can the legacy media companies spend enough on streaming content to keep pace with Netflix’s global audience and the near-bottomless wallets of Apple and Amazon.
Days after Disney CEO Bob Chapek praised Hulu’s live TV offering during the company’s quarterly earnings call, the company notified customers of a significant price increase. As of Dec. 18, the package including more than five dozen networks will cost $64.99 a month for both current and new subscribers, up 18% from the previous rate of $54.99.
