Disney Sweetens the Pot with New Perks for Plus Subscribers
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Retaining subscribers is challenging in an era when streaming services are getting more expensive. Many customers now shuffle between services, hopping on to one for a month or two to binge their favorite shows before canceling and moving on to another. After all, we all have budgets to balance, and it makes sense to pay for only one service at a time in today’s economy.
Naturally, companies like Disney aren’t thrilled by subscriber churn. It not only affects their bottom line in raw dollars, but it makes it hard to forecast revenue when it can’t be sure if those subscribers who leave are ever coming back. While streaming bundles have helped, these are still costlier than paying for a single streaming service, so they only work for those customers who plan to keep two or more services in the bundle on the go at the same time — and the most popular streaming service of all, Netflix, doesn’t participate in any of these bundles unless you get them through your cable or mobile provider.
The catch is that streaming bundles are still only about streaming services. Apple has avoided some of its subscriber churn through Apple One bundles, which add other valuable services like Apple Music and iCloud+ into the mix. People may get bored of Apple TV+ during the off seasons, but they’re unlikely to cancel Apple Music or give up their iCloud storage. Ditto for Amazon, where Prime Video is more of an add-on for Prime subscribers than a standalone service (while you can sign up separately, you get so much more with a Prime subscription that we can’t imagine too many people opt solely for the streaming service).
Now, Disney is trying something similar by offering value-added benefits, or “perks,” to encourage Disney+ customers to stick around even when there’s nothing interesting to watch.
Disney+ Perks first launched in late 2024, just in time for the holiday season, but we can’t blame you if you missed it. The initial offerings were a bit pedestrian, mostly consisting of travel contests and early access to tickets and merch.
However, Disney now appears to be taking a page from Amazon’s playbook. The House of Mouse just announced a much more comprehensive series of Perks, with the promise of new ones appearing regularly.
At launch, Disney+ subscribers will get a six-month free DashPass membership from DoorDash, 20% off on online purchases from Adidas, 15% off purchases at Funko.com and Loungefly.com, three months of CLEAR+ service, a two-month free trial of Super Duolingo, free in-game emoji from Disney Emoji Blitz and a free MONOPOLY GO! and Star Wars TIE fighter in-game token, plus a rotating series of travel contests and discounted stays at Walt Disney World.
Disney also plans to offer a separate Hulu Perks program starting June 2. These will complement the Disney+ Perks, so subscribers to both streaming services (individually or in a bundle) can enjoy even more benefits. In addition to ticket and travel contests, Hulu Perks promises deals from “partners like Microsoft, Pure Green, and LG Electronics.” However, it isn’t offering details on what those will be yet. As with Disney Perks, new Hulu Perks will drop weekly.
Disney+ Perks and Hulu Perks are only available in the US for now, but there’s nothing else you need to take advantage of them other than being a Disney+ or Hulu subscriber. You can find out more about Disney+ Perks at perks.disneyplus.com. There will likely be a similar web page for Hulu once its perks program launches next week.
