Disney+ is introducing its first price increase since the Disney streaming platform launched in November 2019. Disney+ is raising its monthly subscription price from $6.99 a month to $7.99 a month, effective March 2021.

The inevitable happened: Disney+ is raising its prices. But only by $1. At last night’s Disney Investors conference, Disney announced that its streaming platform is hiking its monthly subscription price from $6.99 a month to $7.99 a month, starting March 26, 2021. The yearly subscription price will go up to $79.99 per year, while the Disney Bundle — which includes Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN Plus — will see a $1 increase to $13.99 a month.

It’s par for the course for a free market to see subscription prices increase, as the company raises prices to recoup the losses of its launch and to fund new investments, though it means that Disney+ may soon lose its title as the cheapest streaming platform. The news arrives just a couple months after Netflix announced it was increasing its prices for U.S. subscribers, hiking up its most popular plan from $13 to $14 a month.

Still, a year after launch seems a little early for a Disney+ price hike. But in the aftermath of the surge of news from the Disney Investors conference, it is not so surprising. Disney announced that 10 Marvel series, 10 Star Wars series, 15 Disney live-action, Disney Animation and Pixar series, and 15 new Disney live-action, Disney Animation, and Pixar features will all be headed directly to the streaming service — an enormous amount of content for a streaming platform that until now was lagging behind on original titles. This means that Disney will have to spend a lot more money on these titles, especially ones that require high production values like Marvel and Star Wars. Hence the price hike.

It’s a formula that they’re borrowing from Netflix, per Polygon, who cited Netflix’s Greg Peters, chief operating officer and chief product officer, explanation on price hikes, saying Netflix will “occasionally go back and ask [customers] to pay a little bit more to keep that virtuous cycle of investment and value creation going.”

Still, roughly $8 a month is manageable for a streaming platform, though it will certainly start to weigh on consumers as more streaming services emerge, each offering an abundance of new titles and requiring increasingly high prices for them. It makes one wonder if there will ever be a ceiling for such price hikes.

For now, it’s unclear if the price hikes will be coming to Disney+ subscribers in other countries, or if this will solely be limited to the U.S.

The post Disney+ is Raising Its Price to $8 a Month Starting March 2021 appeared first on /Film.