There is no denying that the Covid pandemic has advanced the dominance of streaming platforms worldwide, and Disney+ launched at just the right time to take advantage of the many stay-at-home lockdowns imposed on families in numerous countries. While other platforms such as Paramount+ and Discovery+ have offered subscribers a cheaper price-point for an ad-supported version, it seems that Disney is now considering a similar route for their Disney+ service.
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Disney was forced to run ads for Starz to be able to have the entire Star Wars saga streaming on their platform on their launch day back in 2019, and while these ads were just on the login page and not the kind of advertisements that would break up a movie, it was the only type of adverts previously seen on the platform, although the subject was discussed by CEO Bob Chapek last year. A new report by The Information has suggested that after only three years in the streaming game, Disney may be moving to include an ad-supported, cheaper tier to help subscriber growth and push to make the Disney+ streaming platform more profitable within the next two years.
Disney+ Could Use Hulu’s Model As a Guide For How Prices Will Look
As with many such decisions, the possibility of an ad-supported Disney+ option will require a lot of discussions at a top level before anything comes to fruition. While other big players like Netflix have so far resisted the possibility of offering reduced rates in exchange for viewers allowing ad content to play while they watch, Disney is already running a tiered platform in the U.S. with Hulu.
While Hulu content in Europe is part of the Disney+ platform itself under the Star banner, in the U.S., Hulu currently runs with monthly price plans of $12.99 a month ad-free or $6.99 a month with ads. It would seem likely that Disney+ would feature a similar kind of discount in exchange for ad-supported content, which would potentially open up the Disney archives, and their big-draw assets of growing Marvel and Star Wars collections, up to a whole new wave of subscribers who have just found the platform too expensive to add to their outgoings at its full price.
There is no confirmation of whether the go-ahead will be given on a cheaper ad-supported Disney+ subscription in the immediate future. Still, with the entertainment behemoth looking to kick its slowing subscriber growth numbers up a notch by 2024, it would seem like this is one of the easiest options they have available to use to get where they want to be in the market.
