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.
That could all be about to change. A recent report by Bleeding Cool claims that several sources have recently participated in a series of surveys regarding the potential of a DC comics digital subscription model. While the service isn’t official yet, and is likely still in the earliest exploration stages, one of their sources specifically mentioned a potential collaboration with Amazon in which readers could add on a DC comics package to an existing Amazon Prime subscription, possibly earning a discount for bundling with Amazon’s other member’s only services. Since Amazon owns Comixology and also offers comics through its own Kindle service, it’ll be interesting to see if this is yet another comics offering or if it will be through one of the existing channels.
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.
How do you read your comics currently? Would you be interested in subscribing to any of the potential services mentioned above? Let us hear about it in the comments! If you’ve been approached by Amazon or DC with a similar survey, we’d also love to hear more information about your experience.
