It’s been a huge year for DC comics. Last March, the publisher announced several major changes in multiple areas across the brand from character designs and writing teams to frequency of publication and per-issue pricing. These changes all came along with the DC Rebirth soft reboot, and could be largely considered a massive success as both DC sales and market share dramatically increased over the course of the year.
Despite the success of these changes, prices will be going up on some monthly comics starting in April, at which point they’ll also begin bundling digital codes with the comics. It’s obvious DC is trying to find the right approach to both satisfy its current audience and bring in new readers, but one area they’ve largely ignored is digital subscriptions. While DC comics are available through providers like Comixology, DC doesn’t have any offering similar to Marvel Unlimited, which is a service similar to Netflix, but for comic books, allowing subscribers to read from a selection of comics for a fixed monthly price.
The surveys didn’t exclusively inquire about comic book subscriptions but also asked about the potential of bundling all forms of DC content, from live-action TV shows to animation to feature films. DC could also be considering multiple tiers, including either a “small” number of issues or an “extensive” number of issues, with possible price points standing at $5.99 and $12.99 per month.
While this is all very exciting, it’s important to note that this is only market research at this point, so even though it demonstrates a curiosity on the part of DC, it doesn’t mean they’re on the verge of launching a comprehensive service, or any service at all – they could decide it’s not worth it. After all, they’ve already been outselling Marvel, who already has a similar subscription model in place.
Source: Bleeding Cool
