Just how many ads will be on the Disney+ ad-supported option when it launches? Right now Disney+ like most streaming services runs ad free. However it was announced fairly recently that Disney would offer an ad supported version with a lower cost for subscribers. The price difference of course will be the revenue generated from the ads. But how many will subscribers get, will it be like the current U.S. TV model where there seems to be a commercial every 5 minutes? As a U.K resident, we don’t get as many commercial breaks per show as the U.S. does, but equally, I think most of us like not having any at all.
In a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, Rita Ferro, Disney’s president of ad sales and partnerships, confirmed how many ad minutes per hour there will be.
“four minutes of commercials an hour”
That is what to expect from the ad-supported service when it launches later this year. I’m not sure whether this is considered a lot, but we do know this is twice what you currently get in the ad-supported version of Hulu, also owned by Disney. However it was also made clear that even with this reduced subscription fee, there will be no ads for pre-school programming. There was no explanation of this decision, but we do know regulations are far more stringent in the U.S for ad’s targeted at pre-schoolers.
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What we still have no idea about is how much the ad-supported service will cost? We could look at Hulu for an example, but it would be a bad one. The current non-ad version of Hulu in the U.S. is already more expensive than the non-ad version of Disney+. Additionally, Hulu is kinda U.S. only. Abroad the whole thing tends to be merged into one standard package.
Currently Disney+ costs $79.99 per year, or $7.99 per month. I’m sure that to begin with we can expect the ad-supported version to run cheaper. However, I am also pretty sure, based on comments Disney CEO Bob Chapek made recently, that the price for Disney+ will increase. Eventually I’ll guess the current price we pay for Disney+ will be the price for the ad-supported version and that the higher tired package will increase. It’s really just a question of how it takes us to get to that position?
I despise commercials and the new digital era means not being able to skip them. It used be you could pre-record shows from TV and just skip past the commercials. However with streaming, just like YouTube you are forced to go through a certain amount of ads before you get the show you clicked on. This is a horrible way to watch content and I’ll be maintaining my higher tiered package. If we ever get to the point where we are forced to watch ads, no matter what tier we choose? That’s the day I stop subscribing.
What do you think of how many ads will be on the Disney+ ad-supported option when it launches? Too much, don’t care, or you will keep on the high tier? Let us know in the usual spot below or over on Discord.