What you need to know...
- Disney+ is set to launch an ad-supported subscription tier in 2022 following Hulu, HBO Max, Netflix, and others.
- Disney will limit ads to just four minutes per hour which would be one of the lowest amounts for an ad-supported streaming service.
- Disney has confirmed that preschool programming will not have any ads at all.
Thanks to its incredible catalog of movies and good app design, Disney+ has quickly risen to be one of the largest video streaming services available. Like many other streaming services, Disney+ is looking to offer an ad-supported tier to entice even more streamers to the service. Luckily for those considering this cheaper option, Disney won't overload streamers with too many ads.
As reported by Tech Crunch, Disney+ will limit ads to four minutes per hour and won't show ads to preschoolers at all. Disney confirmed to the publication that a lighter ad load and lack of advertisements for preschoolers would be the plan for the initial launch. Notably, this is well below the FCC's weekday limit of 12 minutes per hour on children's educational programming.
Walt Disney Company’s president of Advertising Sales, Rita Ferro, confirmed that the company would not be collecting data on individual children to target them with ads. Preschool children using their own Disney+ profile won't see any ads.
This plan is set to be offered alongside the current Disney+ ad-free tier. While we still don't know exactly how much Disney will charge for this new tier, Tech Crunch noted that Disney executives had indicated that the ad-free subscription might increase from its current $7.99 price. While the option to get rid of ads entirely will still be available, many will find the trade-off of watching a few commercials worth the cost savings, especially as people need to sign up for more and more services to get all the content they're after.
Like Disney, Netflix is also preparing to launch an ad-supported tier that's expected to land by the end of 2022. This comes as Netlfix plans to crack down on password sharing on the best streaming devices.
