Disney+ planned ad-supported tier is now available. This new model launches on December 8. Previously, Disney+ merely had one tier, priced at $7.99 monthly, without ads. If you want to keep watching Disney+ without ads, the new price for that tier is $10.99 a month.
While it’s evident that increasing the price of a previously available service and charging the old fee for a lesser tier isn’t great for customers, it is an option that’s now available. Michael Paull, an executive at Disney, recently offered a statement on the new development. He said:
Today’s launch marks a milestone moment for Disney+ and puts consumer choice at the forefront. With these new ad-supported offerings, we’re able to deliver greater flexibility for consumers to enjoy the full breadth and depth of incredible storytelling from The Walt Disney Company.
The issue here is that while yes, there are choices, the subscriber is forced to pay three more dollars a month if they’d like to continue using the service as it existed. If not, they can just stick with the old price, but now be subjected to frequent ad breaks. Not only that, but the ad-supported tier won’t feature other bells and whistles, like downloads, Groupwatch, or Dolby Atmos support.
Disney has been the majority owner of Hulu since at least 2019, and it seems that they wanted to take a big risk by trying out ad-supported models over there first. Rather than pushing it on the platform that featured their name, they opted for a sneakier approach. When they realized that people would pay more or settle for an ad-supported tier, they expanded the system to other streaming services.
As far as the bundles go, Disney is offering an ad-supported Hulu/Disney+ bundle for $9.99 a month. For $12.99, you can get Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+. Hulu with live TV will go for $69.99 a month, which includes Disney+ and ESPN+ in their ad-supported forms.
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