Disney+ has ended its seven-day trial period option and is no longer offering new customers a chance to try the service out for free. The development comes weeks ahead of musical Hamilton’s 3 July debut on the platform.
“We continue to test and evaluate different marketing, offers and promotions to grow Disney Plus,” a rep for the company told Variety. “The service was set at an attractive price-to-value proposition that we believe delivers a compelling entertainment offering on its own.” The House of Mouse is also not offering free trials for its three-way bundle of Disney+, Hulu (which it owns a majority stake in) and ESPN+. Hulu by itself, however, is still offering its one-month free trial.
The streaming service has amassed at least 50 million subscribers since its launch last November and has a significant edge over Apple’s TV+ service, thanks to an established catalog of content that includes many popular Star Wars and Marvel franchises.
Disney also has officially added its first Fox-produced Marvel film to the streaming service. Up until now, Disney+ has only showcased Marvel movies under the Marvel Studios banner, but no longer. Disney+ subscribers can now watch Fant4stic, the panned Fantastic Four reboot from director Josh Trank.
Both Netflix and Amazon Prime offer first-time users a free 30-day trial, while HBO Max, CBS All Access and Apple TV+ offer seven-day free test runs.