Disney is raking its customers over the coals with a 75% price hike for their annual subscription (originally $80.) People wonder why piracy is on the rise.
this post was submitted on 17 Oct 2023
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Disney’s desperation is showing—just look at their stock price the past 2 years.. down 50%
I’m honestly surprised they didn’t raise their subscription fees sooner. Unfortunately for them it’s a double edged sword, which will cause a lot of people to cancel and quite possibly harm them in the long run.
Meh, might not hurt them, obviously their suits don't think so.
What they're trying to do is convert or lose low-value customers and make high-value customers and save bandwidth at the same time. Fewer high-value customers also has an impact on support costs.
I did the same with my little computer support business. Doubled prices and kept the solid customers.
I straight steal my media, so I don't have a dog in this fight. Actually, I'm a little stunned that anyone pays for this bullshit in the first place.
Who may now seek cheaper alternatives.
And they are free to do so! Why do I want small-time, bitchy customers who won't, or can't, pay? Let someone else coming up in the world take them on. I did my time, they can do theirs.
Pick one:
A restaurant that charges $10 per burger, at a cost of $3 per burger.
A restaurant that charges $5 per burger, at a cost of $3 per burger.
Capitalism is common sense!
CAVEAT: When decoupled from a sense of the greater good. Which is sometimes called morality.
Anyone who calls any customer "bitchy" for not staying after raising prices deserves to jump off a cliff.
If he meant exactly what you said, I agree. But, there is an alternate interpretation of what the guy was saying:
You tend to get different kinds of customers with different price ranges. The ones who can afford to spend money generally don't give a crap about what you're billing them for, and they just want the work done properly.
The ones who aim to get a "good deal" tend to be less hands-off and more critical about the work done/supplies used and billed for. Frugal customers take extra time and sanity to field questions/suggestions, and sometimes, it's just not worth dealing with.
If raising his fee filters out the latter category, it's hard to blame him. I wouldn't want to deal with penny-pinchers either, and simply being more expensive than the competition is an effective deterrent.
^ This is exactly what I meant.
The 2nd option, as a consumer lol.
Disney has for the last few decades positioned itself as a premium product at a premium price (think the entry costs for theme parks, cruises, etc.) much the same way Apple has. They clearly think their content is worth the premium, so they're going for it.
Also, a lot of their best films are going public domain in the coming years, so they need to maintain and grow their revenue stream somehow.
Shedding ABC, eliminating physical media, and increasing streaming prices makes total sense if you think the way they do.