14 percent inflation in Disney+

by philg

Someone at Disney did not get the memo about the official inflation rate being 6 percent. Email received today:

A 14 percent increase is especially painful for those of us who do not have TVs. Why do they need the extra money if they’re moving to Florida and won’t be paying California’s 13.3 percent state income tax rate?

13 thoughts on “14 percent inflation in Disney+”

  1. That’s find if they only change the rate every 2 years. Why assume they will change it every year? Did they do that before?

    • @Joseph Shipman: Why is it “fine” if they only do it every two years? Why should Disney’s customers get shafted a full year of extra inflationary cost in advance so Disney can bank the money instead? Effectively they are applying a preemptive tax on millions of people.

      I subscribe to Adobe Creative Cloud for $52.99 a month. Should Adobe follow suit and double down, charge me $105.98 a month and promise not to raise that for 10 years or so and have their marketing department tell me they’ve “inflation proofed” my Creative Cloud subscription? For Pete’s sake, please don’t tell Verizon and Cox Cable! [Note: if you act before December 3, you can get Adobe CC with all the apps. for $29.99 a month. I’m going to chat with them right now and see if I can negotiate my contract.]

      Maybe someone should ask Jen Psaki what kind of Mickey Mouse accounting is going on here?

  2. they’re counting on inelastic demand what with parents of young kids clamoring for “Lion King” (TV is ultimate babysitter, as well as peacemaker between/among siblings). They just got a free plug from popular PTON instructor Jenn Sherman when playing Alice Cooper cover of Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigsby” on her popular Sunday 9:30 am ride — usually more than 10,000 logged in, with many more who take the ride post-facto — Jenn mentioned being “two hours in” on Disney+ to the Beatles documentary, and told us it’s not-to-be-missed. (Full disclosure: I am not a Disney subscriber as Netflix & AMZN Prime and occasionally HBO or Paramount are more than enough for our household.)
    https://members.onepeloton.com/share/workouts/65f70802be034460b290f4b5ad3dffaa?utm_source=android&utm_medium=in_app

  3. The property tax on my FL non-homesteaded rental condo is up 50% over the past 5 years. I’m paying 4x what long-time resident owners are paying for identical units in the same building. This condo was to be my retirement destination, but rapidly rising property taxes are going to force me to sell it.

  4. I haven’t had cable or any TV subscription services for over ten years. I rely Youtube videos for home repair tutorials and an outdoor antenna for minimal other viewing (Patriots and Buccaneers on CBS and FOX today at 1:00!).

    • DP: One of our neighbors here in Abacoa (Jupiter, Florida) has a 2006 Chevy truck in pieces. He is replacing the cylinder heads, the head gaskets, of the valve train components that are accessible. plus the water pump, the power steering pump, the thermostat, etc. The vehicle has 250,000 miles on it. I asked where he learned to do all of this and he said “Watching YouTube videos.” He didn’t even own a standard socket set when he began the project (bought one at Home Depot for $100 and also a torque wrench).

    • Cable TV mostly survives on sports fans nowadays, but has to pay exorbitant fees for the rights. Disney (who owns ESPN) is spending $70.4 billion over the next decade on sports rights. I cut the cord 15 years ago as I have zero interest in spectator sports or subsidizing the NFL, NBA and other sleazy organizations.

      Disney’s new CEO also reorganized and in the ensuing chaos, new show production just ground to a halt, so they are effectively asking for a huge price hike for stagnant content.

  5. According to the scant references, disney+ began in 2019 at $84/year. Netflix began in 1999 at $240/year for 3 mailed DVD’s at a time. Technically, someone would have been worse off by advancing 22 years of subscription fees, though the price increases during the lifetime of any single technology are a slaughter. You’re better off hopping between plans than sticking to a single one.

    The real pain is the number of subscriptions now required to see anything on the internet besides the Greenspun blog: Netflix, hulu, thousands of paytreon accounts, new york times, bloomberg, marketwatch, amazon prime. The world is depending on 1 man to watch all the media in the world & quote it for free.

  6. Meanwhile, they nix an episode of the Simpsons over a Tiananmen Square reference. Gouge the American consumer, appease the ChiComs: it’s the price of doing business. I hope Xi marks this down as one of his success stories in the new history of the Chinese Communist Party he’s creating: “Even Mickey Mouse and Homer Simpson were No Match for the Great Leader….”

    https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/simpsons-china-censorship-1235053711/

    Red Square, Evergreen State College, Olympia WA. Evergreen State is Matt Groening’s (and Courtney Love’s) alma mater.

    I think you can still watch that episode of The Simpsons in Red Square at Evergreen, but Disney+ censors it in China.

    https://itsgoingdown.org/seattle-wa-call-community-self-defense-red-square-saturday/

    “Groening grew up in Portland,[12] and attended Ainsworth Elementary School[13] and Lincoln High School.[14] From 1972[15] to 1977, Groening attended The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington,[16] a liberal arts school that he described as “a hippie college, with no grades or required classes, that drew every weirdo in the Northwest”.[17] He served as the editor of the campus newspaper, The Cooper Point Journal, for which he also wrote articles and drew cartoons.”

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Groening

    I used to refer to Evergreen as Communist State University, but it’s not as Communist as Disney+ has become in the name of Capitalism.

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