Hulu price increases (and Disney+) (and ESPN+)

The trend of the last 2-3 years continues. Now it's the Disney services that are going up. This means Disney+, ESPN+, and Hulu (in various forms).

Now, Hulu both is and is not going up in price. The basic Hulu service, which is my service of choice, is staying at the current $8/month price. That means I won't be impacted by this price increase. Hurray for being a cheapskate, amirite?

Effective October 12, 2023, the price for Hulu (No Ads) -- that's the name of the Hulu service without ads -- is going up from $15/month to $18/month.

Hulu+Live TV jumps from $70/month to $77/month. The no-ads version goes up from $83/month to $90/month.

Similar price changes will impact the Disney+ and ESPN+ services as well.

Hulu is my service. Basic Hulu. I don't mind the ads, and I'll save a few bucks by sitting through them.

The thing is, football season is coming up. There will be some games I want to watch on ESPN+. So, come September 2, there are games that I might want to watch on ESPN+. So, how much is that?

By itself, ESPN+ is $10/month. That's going up to $11/month.

I would consider having both Hulu (standard) and ESPN+ bundled. However, the pricing isn't that great. In fact, it's the same as subscribing separately. There is no Hulu/ESPN+ bundle. So, for the two services, it's currently $17/month, going up to $18/month.

The Disney Bundle of all three services -- Hulu, Disney+, ESPN+ -- is currently $13/month. That means I can get the two I want for $17, but the price goes down $4 if I get all three. Under the new pricing, it will be $15/month, a $3 savings over the price for the two. So, I'll go from Hulu to the Disney Bundle when it's football season.

Of course, in the meantime, I'll subscribe to Hulu for $7/month, pausing the subscription for up to 12 weeks at a time. I've got a pause happening soon, and will decide during September whether to resume and do the Disney Bundle, or simply leave it paused and subscribe to ESPN+ for $10/month (soon to be $11/month).

My Streaming Life gets a little complicated in football season. I'll deal with the rest of ESPN separately. I don't think I'll do the Hulu+Live TV, particularly at the prices they are, and certainly not will be. I'll look at Sling TV then. For now, it's Hulu on pause, and something to be determined by kickoff.