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Disney+ and Hulu raise prices by up to 13 percent after doubling profits

163 points · 188 comments · Brajeshwar

  1. avgDev · · focus · HN ↗
    Oof. I guess sailing the high sees is back on the table.

    We are back to cable pricing, but shows and movies are all over the place and now we need multiple apps to track us.

    1. mixdup · · focus · HN ↗
      >We are back to cable pricing

      People expecting that the content companies were going to just accept lower revenue forever and not eventually get back to cable pricing were fooling themselves

      In fact, the content companies are planning on making more money than they did under cable because since they're selling direct to the consumer, there's no DirecTV/Comcast/Charter middleman taking a slice anymore

      Of course they'll sell through those intermediaries and take a cut but it will be much less than the cable companies were getting before, and will just go into the marketing cost bucket

      1. cogman10 · · focus · HN ↗
        > People expecting that the content companies were going to just accept lower revenue forever and not eventually get back to cable pricing were fooling themselves

        Well that sort of happened for the music industry. I think people thought the video industry would follow a similar path where a few providers offer very large catalogs and then pay the media owners per play.

        Instead these media owners got greedy and every media producing company decided it also needed to be a streaming company. But further, they licensed the media out exclusively to single streaming companies.

        I'm also certain nobody expected that bought digital media would simply evaporate due to licensing.

        Don't get me wrong, if the music industry could get away with the same move they would. But there's simply a lot more music and the ecosystem is too well established.

        1. mixdup · · focus · HN ↗
          The consumer isn't the side that got screwed in the music industry, the screws got put to the artists in that industry instead
        2. mgoetzke · · focus · HN ↗
          They even often make extra money for each movie. Eg some movies on Amazon are offered only dubbed for "free", if you want to listen to the original soundtrack you have to buy it.
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