Disney Plus will roll out Star, an entertainment channel for adults, next week. It's also boosting prices in non-US markets.
Disney Plus subscription fees will increase by about 33% in non-US markets starting Tuesday.
Star will launch first in Europe, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, according to Disney.
Disney wants to hit 300 million to 350 million total streaming subscriptions by 2024.
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Disney Plus will launch Star, a new entertainment brand for adults, in non-US markets next week and will increase its subscription fees by about 33% in those regions, according to a Disney Plus Star factsheet.
Star, the sixth tile in the Disney Plus app, will first launch February 23 in Europe, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada and will roll out later in the year across Eastern Europe, South Korea, Japan, and Hong Kong, according to a Disney Plus Star factsheet.
The company didn't immediately respond to Insider's question about whether the price increases in those markets was attributed to the added content via Star.
In the UK, for example, existing and new subscribers will pay £7.99 ($11.15) per month or £79.90 ($111.50) annually. That's compared to the current monthly subscription fee of £5.99 ($8.36) monthly or £59.99 ($83.71) yearly.
Star will offer content that is updated weekly from Disney Television Studios, 20th Century Studios, and Touchstone, among others, Disney said. Star will also offer over 35 first-run series set to premiere by the end of 2021, and deliver around 50 local originals every year by 2024, the company said in the factsheet.
The brand's launch comes as streaming services, including Netflix, Prime, and Hulu, thrive as people continue to stay home because of the coronavirus pandemic. The combined number of US subscribers for the major streaming services increased more than 50% between December, 2019, and December, 2020, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis conducted with market research firms MoffettNathanson and Harris X.
Disney didn't reveal how many subscribers it expects to gain from Star, but it expects its streaming services to hit 300 million to 350 million total subscriptions by 2024, a company spokesperson told Insider.
The Disney Plus video streaming platform, launched in 2019, and has a subscriber base of 94.9 million as of January 2, according to the company.
Star will also come with a parental control app feature that allows users to set their content age rating that ranges from zero+ to 18+, according to the Disney+ website. It also allows them to add a password to the rated content as well as the app.
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