Verizon Wireless customers on older unlimited 5G phone plans that included the Disney bundle of Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ can rest easy: Your perks will remain despite the looming price increase from Disney.
There was some question on whether Verizon would make change with Disney rolling out price hikes across its various streaming services on October 12.
When a customer last week asked Verizon’s customer service account on X (formerly Twitter) about any changes, it responded: “Disney is in the process of modifying the price of their current offers.” But a Verizon spokeswoman confirmed to Cord Cutters News that the price change wouldn’t affect customers with an existing Disney perk in their plan. Customers would, however, lose the perk if they opted to switch to a new plan.
The Disney bundle add-on was a byproduct of a time when carriers aggressively threw in streaming services as a freebie on top of their wireless subscription. AT&T, for instance, offered HBO Max while T-Mobile partnered with Netflix. Customers who signed up for Verizon’s 5G Get More or 5G Play More plans got the services for free as an extra incentive. But Verizon has slowly been phasing out the perks, which only exist as a paid add-on with its current lineup of unlimited data plans.
The Disney bundle now cost an additional $10 on top of those plans, which start at $70 a line.
AT&T, meanwhile, no longer offers HBO Max (it exists as a different service called Max with a new parent company in Warner Bros. Discovery). Netflix on Us is still a program offered by T-Mobile to anyone who subscribes the Go5G or Magnenta Max plans, which are at a higher tier.
For now, the Disney bundle perk remains safe for Verizon customers willing to hang on to their older plans.