American entertainment giant Disney has announced that it will increase the subscription price of its Disney+ streaming service for customers in Romania. This decision also applies to other European markets.

The announcement, made in a press release published on Disney’s website, comes as the US company has largely rethought its pricing policy after saying earlier in August that it would launch its ad-supported subscription version in Europe this year.

An ad-supported version of the Disney+ streaming service will launch in Europe in November, where it will be available in eight countries. As with the “Premium” version, it looks like the European expansion will happen in several “waves”.

Disney+ with ads will cost €5.99 in France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Norway, Sweden and Denmark, countries that will be part of the first wave of European expansion. Those who opt for the ad-free basic subscription in these countries will have to pay €8.99 per month.

How much will a Disney+ subscription cost in Romania?

For our country, the price of the Disney+ service will increase to 36.99 lei, compared to the current 29.99 lei. The change applies to new customers in Romania from November 1, and to existing customers from December 6.

However, the surprising news is that the current “Standard” subscription will practically become the equivalent of “Premium” both for customers in Romania and for customers from several European markets. This means, among other things, that Romanian subscribers will not have any ads on Disney+.

At the same time, they will benefit from being able to use Disney+ on 4 devices at the same time, compared to the two that the current Standard subscription offers. Picture quality is also upgraded to 4K UHD and HDR, up from the current 1080p resolution for this subscription type.

Customers who opt for a one-year subscription will also get two months of free streaming for just 369.90 lei instead of the 443.88 lei that would have been the full price.

Differences between Netflix and Disney+

In comparison, Netflix offers its “minimum” subscription to customers in Romania for €4.99 after a discount announced in February, but it only allows HD video quality (720p) and streaming on a single device.

A standard Netflix subscription, which offers conditions similar to the new Disney+ package (same quality but streaming on only two devices at the same time), costs €9.99 per month.

Of course, the type of content on the two streaming platforms also matters, and this is where we enter subjective territory. However, if we are strictly referring to the number of new movies and series released each month, Netflix remains king.

An advantage for Disney+ employees is that the platform allows passwords to be shared with non-family members, unlike Netflix, which in May of this year took action against “password sharing” worldwide. Specialty website Mashable notes that the situation may be temporary, as Bob Iger, Disney’s CEO, suggested this month that the company’s streaming platform could limit the practice from next year.

The competition between Netflix and Disney+ has intensified after the company founded by Walt Disney overtook Netflix in the third quarter of last year in the number of users on streaming platforms. But Disney was able to do this because some of its customers had subscriptions to multiple platforms (Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN).

In other words, Netflix remained the market leader in terms of unique subscribers.

Other major streaming platforms available in Romania offer a standard subscription that costs 4.99 euros for HBO Max, 13.99 lei for Amazon Prime and 3.99 euros for movies and series released by SkyShowtime.