Disney+ has raised its prices twice in the past two years. Starting today, it’s cutting them – for three months, at least.
The timing is notable: HBO Max launched in the UK last month, giving direct subscribers a serious new alternative to consider.
From now until May 6, Disney+ is offering reduced monthly prices across all three of its subscription tiers, for up to three months.
The offer is open to new subscribers and eligible returning customers, but not to those who currently have an active Disney+ subscription.
Here’s everything you need to know.
From £5.99 to £14.99: The Disney+ Story So Far
It’s easy to forget just how much Disney+ has changed since it launched in the UK back in March 2020.
Back then, it was a single, simple package: £5.99 a month for 4K streaming, four concurrent devices, no adverts, and a library built around Disney, Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars. That was it.
Today, the service looks almost unrecognisable – and not just because the price has more than doubled for that same experience.
The first big change came in February 2021, when Star arrived on Disney+, bringing more adult-oriented content like Grey’s Anatomy, Family Guy, and a wave of FX shows alongside the family-friendly fare.
Then in November 2023, Disney+ ditched the one-size-fits-all model and introduced three separate tiers: Standard with Ads, Standard, and Premium.
Password sharing restrictions followed, with an Extra Member add-on costing an additional £5.99 a month for Standard and Premium subscribers.
October 2025 brought the Star-to-Hulu rebrand – same content, new tile – as Disney moved to align its international branding with the globally recognised Hulu name.
And then earlier this month, ESPN arrived on Disney+ in the UK, adding a significant sports layer to the service at no extra cost to subscribers.
All of which means that Disney+, love it or hate it, is now a genuinely broad entertainment platform – Marvel, Star Wars, Disney classics, Pixar, National Geographic, FX dramas, Hulu originals, live LaLiga football, the UEFA Women’s Champions League, ESPN content, and more, all under one roof.
Prices went up across the board in late September 2025, and the current regular monthly rates are:
- Standard with Ads: £5.99/month
- Standard: £9.99/month (or £99.99/year)
- Premium: £14.99/month (or £149.90/year)
That Premium monthly price – essentially £15 for a single streaming service – would have seemed extraordinary when Disney+ first launched at £5.99.
Whether the expanded content justifies it is, of course, up to each subscriber.
The Deal: What You’ll Pay For Three Months
Starting today, Disney+ is offering promotional pricing across all three tiers for up to three months. Here’s the full breakdown:
| Plan | Promotional Price | Normal Price | Saving (3 months) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard with Ads | £3.99/month | £5.99/month | £6.00 |
| Standard | £6.99/month | £9.99/month | £9.00 |
| Premium | £9.99/month | £14.99/month | £15.00 |
What you get with each discounted tier:
Standard with Ads (£3.99/month)
- Full HD (1080p)
- Two concurrent streams
- Access to the full content library
- Adverts during programming
- No downloads
- Full HD (1080p)
- Two concurrent streams
- Full content library, ad-free
- Downloads for offline viewing
- 4K UHD and HDR
- Dolby Atmos audio
- Four concurrent streams
- Full content library, ad-free
- Downloads for offline viewing
As usual, this is for NEW subscribers – or returning ones. So if you were subscribed to Disney+ in the past, you can still get this – but if you currently have an active Disney+ subscription, you can’t (unless you cancel and your subscription happens to run out before the end of this offer).
The offer runs until May 6, and after the three-month promotional period, your subscription will automatically renew at the then-current regular monthly price – so set a reminder if you’re planning to cancel before then.
There’s a standard 14-day cooling-off period during which you can withdraw and receive a refund, but this doesn’t apply once you’ve actually started watching.
Disney+ Is Courting You – Even Though Sky Gives It Away Free
There’s something a little paradoxical about this deal. From March 17, eligible Sky TV customers started getting Disney+ Standard with Ads bundled into their Sky subscription at no extra cost.
That’s millions of households who now have Disney+ without paying Disney a penny directly. Sky’s Ultimate TV package – which also folds in Netflix, HBO Max, and Hayu – starts from £24 a month, and when you add up the individual costs of those services alone, the value is hard to argue with.
So why is Disney+ out here discounting its tiers for direct subscribers? Because a very large chunk of the UK population isn’t on Sky, doesn’t want to be on Sky, or has no interest in signing up to a 24-month contract to get there.
For everyone else, Disney+ still needs to earn your subscription the old-fashioned way.
And it now has a serious new competitor to worry about. HBO Max launched in the UK on March 26, and it’s not a lightweight entry.
The full HBO back catalogue – The Sopranos, Game of Thrones, Succession, The White Lotus – plus Warner Bros. films and more, from £4.99 a month. For Sky and NOW Entertainment subscribers it’s either bundled in or arriving at no extra cost.
But for everyone signing up directly, it sits right alongside Disney+ as a genuine alternative.
That’s a question that simply didn’t exist six months ago: if you’re not on Sky and you’re thinking about which service to add, do you pick Disney+ or HBO Max?
Disney+ is clearly trying to make that decision easier by keeping its prices attractive. If HBO Max builds momentum and starts producing its own UK-focused originals, don’t be surprised if these kinds of promotional offers from Disney+ become a more regular feature of the calendar.
How The Discounted Prices Stack Up Against Rivals
At the promotional prices, Disney+ becomes quite competitive – though it’s worth remembering this is temporary.
Disney+ Premium at £9.99 a month undercuts Netflix’s Standard tier at £12.99, and is less than half the price of Netflix Premium at £18.99. Even the Standard tier at £6.99 compares well against what you’d pay elsewhere for a comparable ad-free service.
Netflix, however, may not be staying at those prices for long. Netflix raised its prices in the US in late March 2026, and as we’ve covered, the UK has historically followed within weeks every time this has happened – we called the last round of UK increases to the penny.
Nothing is confirmed for the UK yet, but if the pattern holds, Netflix subscribers here could be paying more before the summer.
Amazon’s Prime Video is in a similar position. Prime Video comes included with a Prime membership (£8.99/month or £95/year), or as a standalone at £7.99/month – but ad-free viewing currently costs an extra £2.99/month on top.
In the US, Amazon has just announced that this add-on is being replaced by a new Prime Video Ultra tier at $4.99/month, which also moves 4K and Dolby Atmos behind the paywall.
The UK hasn’t seen this change yet, but given that the US and UK moved in lockstep when ads were introduced to Prime Video in 2024, it would be surprising if we’re not next.
Apple TV remains the cheapest mainstream option at £9.99/month, though its library is considerably smaller than Disney+’s.
And of course, the most direct new comparison is HBO Max. Its Basic with Ads tier (which excludes the most recent films) is £4.99/month, Standard with Ads is £5.99/month, Standard is £9.99/month, and Premium is £14.99/month – so at regular prices, the two services are almost identically priced at the top end.
During this promotion, Disney+ undercuts HBO Max across the board. Which service suits you better comes down to content: Disney+ for Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar, sports, and FX dramas; HBO Max for prestige HBO shows.
But the broader picture is one of streaming costs rising across the board – which makes locking in three months of Disney+ at a reduced rate a reasonable move, even if you’re not planning to stay subscribed long-term.
So, Should You Sign Up?
At these prices, it’s hard to argue against at least considering it – particularly if you’ve been curious about what Disney+ has become over the past year.
For families with children, it remains difficult to beat. The combination of Disney classics, Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars is something you simply can’t replicate elsewhere – and at £3.99 a month for the ad-supported tier, the value case is strong for the duration of the promotion.
For adults without children, the Hulu content, FX dramas, and the growing sports offering via ESPN make Disney+ a more compelling proposition than it was even 12 months ago.
If you’re not planning to stay subscribed long-term, the rotation approach works well here: subscribe for three months at the discounted rate, watch what you want, and cancel before the price reverts.
That’s what streaming flexibility is for.
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