Disney+ Korea hikes price after landing stream of subscribers

A scene from Disney+'s original drama series ″Moving″ [WALT DISNEY COMPANY KOREA]

Disney+ Korea announced an uptick in its membership fees, striking while the iron is hot as its original drama series "Moving" gains traction.

Ahead of a price hike, it is riding the popularity of Disney+ original series “Moving,” revolving around parents with supernatural abilities and their children who inherited them. Consisting a total of 20 episodes, “Moving” releases two new episodes every Wednesday until Sept. 20.

The streaming platform’s weekly app usage hit a record high of 185 million minutes for the fourth week of August, according to data research company WiseApp and Wise Retail.

Compared to the first week of August, before the drama series was released, app usage rose 130 percent.

“New users who subscribe to the streaming service after Nov. 1, is subject to new memberships and related fees,” Walt Disney Company Korea announced via its website on Wednesday.

Currently, Disney+ operated only one kind of membership, which enabled users to pay a monthly fee of 9,900 won or 99,000 won for an annual subscription.

From November, the streaming service will oversee two subscriptions — standard membership which keeps the original price tag of monthly 9,900 won and yearly fee of 99,000 won, and premium membership which users pay monthly 13,900 won, and 139,000 won annually.

The memberships differ on video and audio quality, and the number of concurrent streams.

Standard membership offers full HD display with 5.1 channel sound system and a maximum of two concurrent streams will be available.

Premium membership offers a maximum of 4K Ultra HD display with Dolby Atmos sound settings, with a maximum of four concurrent streams. What the membership offers is originally part of what the base membership offers currently, which means the platform is upping the monthly fee by 4,000 won.

Users who subscribed to the service before Nov. 1, will be able to use the premium membership fee for the prior price of 9,900 won monthly and 99,000 won annually.

The platform is also holding a discount event which offers annual membership at 58,900 won, a 41 percent decrease from the original price.

BY LEE JAE-LIM [lee.jaelim@joongang.co.kr]