If you are planning on signing up to the upcoming WarnerMedia streaming service than you should probably expect to pay more than you would if you signed up for Disney’s new streaming service, Disney+.
This is based on a new report (cited here) by the analyst firm MoffettNathanson which in turn is reportedly based on information provided by WarnerMedia CEO, John Stankey.
According to that information, Stankey believes Disney will not offer as rich as a product in terms of content as WarnerMedia and therefore WarnerMedia has no issue in entering the market at a higher price point.
Essentially, Stanley is suggesting the WarnerMedia streaming service will be a better service overall and therefore will cost more. The analyst firm even suggested it could be priced “quite significantly” higher than Disney’s based on the conversations with Stankey.
For reference, Disney already confirmed that its Disney+ streaming service will arrive to market priced at $6.99 per month.
The report also goes on to explain the positioning of the new WarnerMedia service will be in between Disney and Netflix. With that further explained as offering more content than Disney, and better (on average) content than Netflix. Reading between the lines, this likely means less content than Netflix, but also (in WarnerMedia’s eyes) less filler.
Both Disney and WarnerMedia’s latest streaming solutions are expected to become available before the end of this year (in beta in WarnerMedia’s case) and therefore in many ways the two services will be going head-to-head with each other on attracting initial subscriptions. Both are expected to arrive with a significant amount of content and both are expected to gain immediate attention based on those content troves.
For example, Disney’s service will provide access to some of the highest-profile and most popular franchises, while the WarnerMedia service is expected to arrive taking advantage of the content it now owns through the recent Time Warner purchase, and will be spearheaded by HBO.
Although WarnerMedia has so far remained tight-lipped on the exact content it will offer, and the price, when Disney announced its service consumers appeared to be immediately impressed with the value on offer.
On the topic of price, what is of interest in this latest report is the clear suggestion that WarnerMedia now plans to offer the service as one simple product. That is, one plan at one set monthly price.
Previously, it has been understood the service was going to adopt a multi-tier approach where it offered varying levels of access as escalating price points. An approach thought to be in effect to appeal to the different needs (and budgets) of different viewers.
This latest report seems to suggest otherwise with only a single-tier pricing strategy now in effect.
This may only be a short-term launch strategy however, as MoffettNathanson also now expects a change to the service next year which will see the launch of an ad-supported model becoming available.
The suggestion here is that users will be able to subscribe to the WarnerMedia service for an even lower monthly price as long as they are willing to put up with ads accompanying the experience.