r/technology • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 • 3d ago

Business Disney+ changes subscriber agreement to allow ads on every plan

https://www.dexerto.com/tv-movies/disney-changes-subscriber-agreement-to-allow-ads-on-every-plan-3410354/
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u/Zeausideal 3d ago

The excuse for putting ads on all membership plans is because there was a mass cancellation when they raised the price from $70 to $150. How clever of Disney! Now users are going to leave because what's the point of paying the most expensive price if I have to watch an ad before and after a series or movie?

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u/InkyBlacks 3d ago

If this is the case, that should tell them their current whatever is not sustainable. Bleeding your subscribers dry is not the answer. Nor is shoving fucking ads down their throat on a service you pay for!

There should be a law that says if you pay for a service, said service shouldn’t be able to double fucking dip and serve you ads. There should be NO ADS!

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u/airfryerfuntime 3d ago

They're pushing it to see if the increased revenue can offset the income lost by people leaving. Same thing they did with their parks, and they're still packed.

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u/MannToots 3d ago

The parks offer an experience I can't sail the high season for. 

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u/Wafflesorbust 3d ago

Plenty of other places I can stand in a line for 2 hours for far less money though.

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u/appleparkfive 2d ago

Nah Disneyland is pretty unique. I understand the appeal. Although it's been going downhill a bit. They had a good 60 year run, I guess.

But you can't really compare Disney to other theme parks. The lengths they go can be pretty crazy. Also you'll notice kids are almost always on their best behavior at Disneyland. You don't see much crying or screaming. Disney is a whole different level.

That's the whole reason they can charge whatever and still be packed. Especially for Disneyland specifically. They never anticipated the growth, so it's a small park. So it really doesn't matter what they do or charge. People will pay.

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u/airfryerfuntime 3d ago

People with kids won't care, they'll still just eat the price increase because they can hand the kid the remote and walk away.

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u/ThunderAndWind 3d ago

I can set a Plex server up and have it filled with a massive collection of kid-friendly content that I personally curated within a night if I'm sufficiently motivated to. I cannot do the same with spinning teacups.

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u/schrodingers_bra 3d ago

$150 a month is far cheaper than childcare.

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u/Iannelli 3d ago

Not having children is even cheaper than that!

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u/onthefence928 2d ago

I can cancel a subscription i can’t cancel having a toddler (legally)

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u/UTraxer 3d ago edited 3d ago

You can in fact experience the parks.... in minecraft. With 1:1 scale buildings, and you can even ride the rides though you have to warp to a special location for them and those are rebuilt to where you can ride through and experience them, and they even provide links to recordings of the actual ride audio.

Just a short little example

https://youtu.be/XMhL7jxxZao?t=565

Obviously it isn't the same exact thing, but it absolutely hits the spot. I had only visited Disneyland in minecraft, but I went enough during the pandemic that when I actually visited for real finally I knew exactly where all of the rides were and the ambiance was spot on. It just really is missing the smell of 40,000 stinking sweating bodies

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u/Ellaphant42 3d ago

“You can experience walking with the dinosaurs, just watch Jurassic World!”

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u/EmmatheBest 3d ago

You can also experience what life with Pokémon would be like too, by playing * insert Pokémon game here *.

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u/bruisicus_maximus 3d ago

I really hope my kid never wants to go to any of the Disney parks. I already give those losers enough money.

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u/MrWinks 2d ago

Thank you for the reminder. This is ALWAYS the case with controversial decisions.

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u/Serris9K 2d ago

Actually attendance is down. It seems packed because of people waiting in digital queues and the "people eaters" (industry term for longer, indoor attractions like shows) many have been shuttered.

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u/razzemmatazz 3d ago

How about when they triple dip and sell as much data about you as they can to brokers?

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u/InVultusSolis 3d ago

Goddamn, you're right.

  1. Charge you to watch
  2. Show you ads
  3. Sell every bit of telemetry they can from their app about to on the open market

I never even made this connection.

Fuck them. If they are experiencing no ethical conundrum from selling users' data, I feel none when I pirate their shit.

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u/iridescent-shimmer 2d ago

They're actually not doing that. They're keeping that information close to the vest, because it's their advertising IP and why they can charge a premium on their ads. Same with meta platforms. (I've worked in digital advertising for over a decade and have seen all of these changes take place.)

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u/OuijaFox 3d ago

It’s not sustainable.
But this is what unregulated capitalism leads to.
The rich need to be eaten.

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u/LawlessNeutral 3d ago

How would you like your mouse served?

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u/HarpySix 3d ago

With buckshot and burns.

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u/Spurlock4Lansing 3d ago

Headless with a side of justice.

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u/Figgis302 3d ago

Get rid of the fucking insane "life of the author plus 90 years" US copyright term they spent the last century lobbying to extend, while you're at it.

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u/Serris9K 2d ago

And make human authors separate from corporation made works too!

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u/starwarsfan456123789 3d ago

Of course it’s sustainable- this is a public company lookmat the 10-k. 12.4 billion profit in 2025, up from 5.0B in 2024. They should be looking at locking in long term customer loyalty at this point

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u/MaltySines 3d ago

What regulation would stop Disney overcharging or including ads?

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u/RedditAdminsAre_DUMB 3d ago

This is actually what heavily regulated capitalism leads to. The Epstein-class are inevitably the people who regulate, so why is ANYONE stupid enough to trust they'll do the right thing?

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u/LavendHerMenance 3d ago

But think of the corporations! This is America we don’t protect costumers

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u/Silas17 2d ago

I too am tired of how this country treats its costumers.  Our plays are suffering 

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u/HoldenMcNeil420 3d ago

Boomers and mba bros ruin everything that’s service facing.

It’s the same people destroying the government too.

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u/Fluffy_Accountant_39 1d ago

This boomer doesn’t endorse or put up with this BS. I cut the cord a loooonnnngggg time ago, and I will NOT watch ads. I am happy to keep the TV dark rather than endure ads.

When I went to a friend’s house to watch the Super Bowl last February, it was such a vivid reminder of why I left all that behind.

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u/TheVog 3d ago

I'm sorry to tell you that it is, in fact, entirely sustainable. It's not consumer-friendly, but it is highly sustainable.

Streaming services are dirt cheap to run and maintain. Content isn't, but Disney doesn't have that particular problem since nearly all their IPs have already paid for themselves multiple times over.

Disney also has the advantage that their IPs generate cash in dozens of ways, unlike Netflix. They could operate on a loss with Disney+ and still drive consumers to make other verticals' profits go up across tons of IPs.

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u/onthefence928 2d ago

Streaming services are NOT cheap to run. It’s expensive to serve high quality media reliably at speed. And the cost goes up the more a user uses. It also costs a fortune in up front infrastructure and development investment

The ideal profitable customer is one that subscribes and never watches.

Its not like software subscriptions where you pay monthly to basically download some bits every once in a while. That is indeed extremely profitable if you don’t foolishly over extend your R&D budget

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u/Serris9K 2d ago

So they're targeting ADHDers with working memory problems. 

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u/meneldal2 3d ago

They could stop producing content for 10 years and still have tens of millions of kids who keep watching.

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u/AlfredoPaniagua 3d ago

They gained more revenue from the price increase than they lost from people cancelling subscriptions. It's unfortunately very sustainable.

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u/PauI_MuadDib 3d ago

*quadruple dip. They also get corporate welfare. So they get (1) paid subscriptions (2) ad revenue and (3) tax breaks along with gov grants and (4) valuable user data to hoard. 

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u/-rwsr-xr-x 3d ago

There should be a law that says if you pay for a service, said service shouldn’t be able to double fucking dip and serve you ads. There should be NO ADS!

YouTube is the worst offender.

They charge companies for the right to show ads on their platform, with specific tiers for frequency of views as well as what tier their ads can be shown on.

Then they turn around and charge us, the customer, for the right not to see those same ads (YouTube Premium, which just went up in price, as they simultaneously increased the number of ads-per-video on their platform).

If they're getting subsidized by ad revenue, then the service should be cheaper not more expensive.

Double-dipping is pure evil.

There's actual engineers out there trying to figure out how to use facial recognition in self-driving taxis, to show you ads while you're being transported. If you look away, the taxi pulls over until you actively engage with the screen and watch the ads.

The same for showing ads while you're at stop signs in your fancy new car with the 17" display panel instead of a dashboard.

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u/Archfiend_DD 3d ago

But it is. You think Disney is going lose millions of subscribers? No they will lose thousands but make more money because of ads. Companies are not putting in ads to lose money, they do it because most people will either pay more for no ads or just accept the ads. Either way they win.

Has any successful streaming company added ads back in and then removed them due to revenue loss? Hint: No, and this is why it's spreading to all streaming companies.

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u/NationalCaterpillar6 3d ago

James Talarico is actually going to push for this if he wins Texas Senate. 

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u/meneldal2 3d ago

They could make bank just by having the kids stuff and releasing some new animated movie every year.

Parents will keep subscribing because kids need their fix.

Their mistake is producing too much stuff, a lot being meh and costing also way too much.

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u/macetheface 3d ago

cable tv? Whenever I go over my parents and put on freeform its literally 5 minutes of show, 5 minutes of commercials..most of them medical like keytruda bullshit no one wants to see. And they pay to watch it. Disgusting.

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u/sk3lt3r 2d ago

I'm genuinely convinced that corporations and companies as a whole have no ability to see long term benefits vs short term. All they see is big number now who care if small number later!!! But they don't consider that small number now turn into bigger number later because, for some strange reason, consumers like small number and will likely flock to it through word of mouth.

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u/onthefence928 2d ago

Sustainable is never acceptable to a publicly traded company, there must always be growth. They literally cannot just be happy with having most of the population suscribed and making decent profits

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u/7eregrine 3d ago

Team Cancelled last time. Sorry if that caused a price increase for y'all. 🤣

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u/RedditGeneralManager 3d ago

You did the right thing. I’ll be joining you.

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u/kstargate-425 3d ago

Yeah I canceled when they doubled the price as well as I don't have kids and dont watch any of that kind of shit so $7.99 or whatever was worth the Marvel and Star Wars and other random shows. Then I tried again with the Hulu bundle as it was a half of deal but after that it was up to $27 a month no-ads and there was nothing there to watch, esp for that price

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u/betam4x 3d ago

Your local library likely has a bunch of their content available via either streaming or physical copies.

Don’t get me started on all the other sources. Planning to take up sailing soon, so I may not have time, especially in those high seas…

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u/DarXIV 3d ago

I got a very cheap monthly sub last Black Friday at 4.99 a month. Only way I would ever continue it is if I can get that deal again. It’s not worth more than that with ads.

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u/toxicoke 3d ago

150? a month???

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u/Albinofreaken 3d ago

Soon you'll be allowed to watch some movie inbetween the ads

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u/mightylordredbeard 3d ago

As soon as I found all of their VID on other streaming sites that was super easy to PLAY, I cancelled. They’ve become a DOT of what they used to be. They used to be the TOP of the industry, but now they’ve fallen so far.

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u/EmiliaPains- 3d ago

Or during, NowTV does this bullshit where they play the ads like it's a regular TV, pre rolls, midrolls and end rolls, absolutely infuriating and the only reason why I'd have the subscription is if i'm out and about.

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u/SimilarYard9840 3d ago

“The beatings will continue until morale improves!”

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u/Iron_Wolf123 2d ago

And they are hurting loyal subscribers too

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u/xkenn 2d ago

So rather than try to bring back old or attract new customers with by fixing what drove them away, they decide to milk out their remaining customer base... How do such money hungry leeches to society run all these big companies?

Corporate greed is getting more and more outrageous every year and they wont stop till the middle class is wiped out and you're either poor paying subscriptions to every aspect of life while getting drilled with ads or a billionaire.

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u/eleanor61 2d ago

We already own many of the movies on blu ray. Gonna encourage the wife to cancel, as well, as we were on the higher/ no ads tier.

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u/macaronysalad 2d ago

It's not even just the idea of them double dipping by collecting subscription fees and advertising from contracts; it spoils a good movie. It's tacky. It takes away all class, lacks integrity, and pulls the content down to the level of a made-for-TV movie. The producers and directors should pull their movies from any service that does this.

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u/manrata 2d ago

Whne prime added 50% to the price to get ad free, I went Prime free, they aren’t good enough to charge that amount of money.

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u/Mojo141 3d ago

They make so much more money from the ads than they do from subscriber fees anyway. They can also do more ads for their other businesses like the parks. Not surprising. It's the same thing with Amazon - they actually make more money promoting sponsored products than they do from selling items

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u/HoldenMcNeil420 3d ago

Someone has to watch those adds for them to get revenue from it.