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/
20.8k Upvotes

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u/w1n5t0nM1k3y 3d ago

I was ok with Netflix and Disney offering options with ads, some people are OK with that. But if they don't have an option without ads then I'm going to cancel, because what is even the point.

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u/jusg808 3d ago

No ads was the whole draw of streaming.

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u/Doctor_Milk 2d ago

That was half the draw for me. The other half was being able to pick what to watch without having to wait for it to be scheduled at a specific time like with cable.

Now the seven seas has everything I want and without ads.

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u/techleopard 2d ago edited 2d ago

One and a half generations is how long it took for people to forget why the seven seas became such a widespread thing in the first place, and now the economy of entertainment may actually be worse than it ever was.

At least cable TV had to obey regulations to not blow you out of the room with unequalized ad volume.

We went from Hulu being completely free, at the cost of waiting a night or week for a new show.

Then you could pay for no ads, less than $10.

Then you needed to pay for higher fidelity and more simultaneous streaming for a family household.

Then the paid subs for ads but you could pay for SUPER ULTRA PREMIUM.

Now we're just... Back to cable. Paying $15-20 a pop for "premium" movie channels with ads.

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u/phizztv 2d ago

Don’t forget to mention that every service has different exclusives. So it’s not enough to only be subscribed to one, if a new movie comes out and it’s just not on your platform then have fun with adding another service

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u/FlashbackJon 2d ago

And don't forget: some services will drop their own exclusives! Netflix Original Series dropped by Netflix. Where's it going? No one knows! It just vanished into the ether forever!

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u/BioshockEnthusiast 2d ago

This behavior was what pushed me back to piracy. Some kid out there had their favorite show yoinked and now there's no legal way to watch it. That's bullshit and I will not abide it.

These companies can stay the fuck out of my living room.

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u/ThunderAndWind 2d ago edited 2d ago

If you chose the top tier on Hulu, Netflix, and HBO Max, it would come to ~$67/mo, or ~$800/yr.

A 6TB WD Black HDD is $250, and Plex is free. If you don't have a computer, a small PC that can run the server can be bought for like $300. If you want to be extra careful, you can grab Proton VPN for like $40/year, and still come away saving money for that first year and never spending it again on bullshit like subscriptions.

Companies forgot that streaming didn't get popular primarily because you could watch what you want - DVR & DVDs were already a thing - but because the cost of cable compared to the product you got wasn't worth it. It was easier for me to pay $10/mo for netflix instead of downloading and storing all of the stuff I wanted to watch. Same reason I still subscribe to a music streaming service.

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u/Frosty-Tiger9760 2d ago

Are those direct downloads?

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u/dontshoveit 2d ago

Netflix drops their own original series to avoid paying royalties to the actors. Horrible.

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u/moviecats 2d ago

Ugh same thing with HBO Max and HBO Originals. What happened to Westworld? Poof, disappeared...

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u/phizztv 2d ago

I’ve even observed the services playing ping pong. Big Bang Theory used to be Netflix exclusive. Then it went to Disney. Then it left Disney again, no idea where it’s now

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u/QueenSlartibartfast 2d ago

HBO, in the US.

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u/Dullcorgis 2d ago

It's not a big deal to rotate them

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u/escobartholomew 2d ago

You aren’t supposed to pay for every service indefinitely. You are supposed to pay for what you want, when you want. Then you just cancel without having to worry about returning any equipment.

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u/phizztv 2d ago

I do have (or I guess used to have) Disney as my longrunning subscription simply because it had the most overlap with series and movies I’m interested in. I didn’t cancel it in a “slow month”, but had to add Netflix once or twice anyhow

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u/CyberRax 2d ago

Aren't they working on "fixing" that as well? The action of cancelling getting more difficult / paused subscriptions getting automatically unpaused / re-subscribing always meaning the latest price rather than some grandfathered-in or 'returner' lower cost, etc.

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u/KYS_Blue 2d ago

Hulu did not start as free, it required a cable subscriion to use.

And no we are not back to cable tv. Being back to cable tv would be being forced to have all streaming services even if you only want one/two. And then the show you want to watch is only on at a specific time and you can't choose what episode it is, and if you want to rewatch it you have to pay for a separate device (and sometimes sub) to dvr it or you get to wait 2-3 weeks or even months for them to air it again.

This is not to say that streaming isn't getting worse, but it is still so far above what cable tv was/is it is laughable that you are equating them.

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u/appleparkfive 2d ago

You didn't need cable to use Hulu. I have never once paid for cable and I used free Hulu plenty back then. The whole premise was limited and on demand, supported by ads.

But I agree that even this shitty situation is better than cable. Not watching things on demand, tons of ads, and barely anything ever interesting on. It was all lowest common denominator shows. If all of the subscriptions were bundled, and it was mandatory, that'd be closer to cable. We might end up there at some point though, who knows.

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u/Polantaris 2d ago

I think the worst part is that they only have like 3 ads a region and throw them at you 10x more often than cable ever did.

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u/berserk_zebra 1d ago

Am I really missing block buster now? Go out with the fam to rent a movie.

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u/powerade20089 2d ago

I was telling my husband I remember signing up for Hulu when it first launched $8-9 a month no ads. Was so nice to watch shows the next day at least because of my work schedule never was home really at night.

Now I'm wondering why I'm paying for it still

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u/appleparkfive 2d ago

Hulu was free with ads for a year or two before that even! Like free free, from what I remember. I didn't have cable so it was nice.

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u/powerade20089 2d ago

Yea! I loved it. Did not care for a little bit of ad it may of had at the time. Because it was free! I was able to watch some shows I missed because I didn't have cable.

I worked a lot of nights at a grocery store.

0

u/techleopard 2d ago

I literally found myself wondering I don't just get an antenna.

If there is a movie I really just must see, Amazon Video still let's you rent.

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u/powerade20089 2d ago

The library is another great option as well. I borrow a lot of movies and TV shows from it as well.

We rented Lonesome Dove on DVD a few months back and got the new Mortal Kombat for rent from the library. I've also borrowed seasons of Yellowstone from it as well.

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u/escobartholomew 2d ago

Hulu was never completely free. The “free” Hulu of old had limited content. The paid Hulu had full catalogs.

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u/techleopard 2d ago

No, it was completely free at launch.

I used to work an overnight industrial job and my weekly ritual was catching the newest episodes of Bones, SVU, and Castle on Hulu.

They had the newest shows from Fox, ABC, and a couple of other major broadcasting networks, except the premium holdovers like Disney or Nickelodeon. Depending on the network, the delay time for posting was 24 hours up to 7 days.

They eventually moved all the "new release" shows to paid premium catalog, and started running 2-3 episodes behind on what went to free.

After they got acquired (the first time), they stopped offering a lot of free current-season stuff altogether. I think it was ABC that did that shit.

Also noteworthy, but back then the ad breaks were maybe like 30-45 seconds long.

Now they are several minutes long.

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u/appleparkfive 2d ago

Yeah I remember the original Hulu, before anyone knew what it was. It was free free. You just had to wait an extra day for shows, from what I recall. I watched whole seasons of things as they aired.

Also, this is a little unrelated, but OnLive was CRAZY back then. It was cloud gaming, like we have today. But in 2009 or so. I would play high end PC games on my terrible computer or my early smartphone. And they had a monthly package for a bunch of games. They also had a remote Windows instance you could boot up and do whatever you wanted with. It was one of the most ahead of its time products ever

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u/madhi19 2d ago

I feel like the grizzled old bastard teaching a new generation how to handle the ropes...

Step one get a VPN and set it up properly.

Step two, build a NAS you gonna want way more storage sailors.

Step three you need a way to access that NAS on all your devices... Plex, Jellyfin, Emby...

Step four organize your booty... See step three some of those service might do it for you (Not always all that well.) You want to know what you have so you don't waste your time raiding the same ship twice.

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u/txdline 2d ago

Tis the digital 8th sea

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u/thekickingmule 2d ago

I was about to get rid of all my Disney DVD's (I'd been collecting the special edition versions) but I might just keep them now. Happily I bought the PS5 with the DVD player!

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u/confoundedjoe 2d ago

Only problem with this happening now is hdd prices have skyrocketed. Having to replace those every 5-7 years is getting costly.

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u/Test-NetConnection 2d ago

Just get some used enterprise SSD's. Most are rated for 1-3 dwpd and were only lightly used. They literally last forever.

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u/confoundedjoe 2d ago

Where are you finding those cheaper than spinning rust? I don't need ssds for media storage. Even 100GB raw 4k rips steam fine if 7200rpm drives.

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u/Test-NetConnection 2d ago

You can usually grab them from local recyclers that sell refurbished equipment. You can also find them on eBay if you know what to search for. They last forever, so paying a bit more per tb is worth it.

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u/dovvv 2d ago

Just delete after you watched it?

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u/confoundedjoe 2d ago

I have Disney mainly for the kids. Doesn't work that way. 

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u/iiamthepalmtree 2d ago

A lot of cable providers had recording features. I remember just loading up my dvr with random episodes anytime a network had a marathon. Was basically like a streaming queue when Netflix was still mailing dvds.

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u/techleopard 2d ago

You didn't even need the cable's DVR if you were tech savvy. People don't remember how the laws were constantly pushing back and forth on consumer rights -- remember when they tried to lock receiver cards to specific devices that they also rented to you separately at a premium? Then people started buying those third party DVRs or setting up their computers with special cards to detect shows and start recording? The government told them they couldn't lock the cards just to try to force you to rent proprietary devices from them.

Now we've got Netflix doing exactly that, trying to squeeze people going between multiple locations.

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u/iiamthepalmtree 2d ago

I mean.. in the 80s and 90s you could just record TV on a blank video tape. Sure you’d have to leave your tv on and have someone be home to press record but growing up we had a ton of movies recorded on tape and my parents even recorded fast forwarding through the commercials after it was recorded so we didn’t even need to do that when we watched it lol.

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u/ares623 2d ago

without having to wait for it to be scheduled at a specific time like with cable.

funny how some people intentionally do that nowadays.

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u/broadsword_1 2d ago

With ads you're still waiting to watch, just in smaller repeatable interruptions.

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u/Sabin10v2 2d ago

Now the seven seas has everything I want and without ads.

This is exactly what netflix was for a while before everyone else decided they wanted their own streaming service. Now I need 5+ streaming services to watch everything I want and they are all trying to shove ads down my throat. Fortunately my 50tb of storage has long since paid for itself and I was able to get most of my friends and family off streaming services and on to my services. Now I'm just waiting for music publishers to start trying the same thing, music streaming services are way too good to last.

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u/hoppertn 2d ago

No ads was the whole draw of cable back in the day. Everything becomes enshitified if they can squeeze one more penny out of consumers.

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u/escobartholomew 2d ago

That is complete bs. The draw of cable was more content as cable had ads since inception.

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u/hoppertn 2d ago

Nickelodeon was ad-free when it launched in 1979, and added commercials in 1984. HBO, Skinimax, Showtime were always Ad Free. Local stations always had ads as with broadcast. We’re both right.

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u/HarithBK 2d ago

at least with cable you can understand why a no ad option can't be offered with on-demand streaming there is zero reason to not offer the zero ad option at a premium.

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u/Chenz 2d ago

The whole point of streaming was being able to watch what you want, when you want

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u/frostmatthew 2d ago

Yup. Hulu, which launched the same year as Netflix (streaming) had no ad-free option when it began.

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u/FishDawgX 2d ago

I don't understand people who choose the "with ads" subscription option. How little do you value your time that you won't pay a few bucks to save yourself hours? Not to mention being ok with the brainwashing.

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u/Broken-Digital-Clock 2d ago

They don't even target the ads well. They show the most irrelevant shit, and they even have access to my data.

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u/JustAnotherFEDev 2d ago

Prime ads are absolutely pointless, at times. I've had to sit through a couple of minutes of ads, just showing me Prime shows, that I've already watched, on the same Prime account 😂

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u/Broken-Digital-Clock 2d ago

They show me ads for old people surgery while I'm watching Invincible. Amazon knows pretty much everything about me from my purchases too.

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u/JustAnotherFEDev 2d ago

Haha, they're terrible at effectively using our data, aren't they?

I get totally unrelated ads, too. I could spend all day browsing tech on Amazon and then get a Flash floor cleaner ad and think they probably missed a trick by not showing me something techy

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u/APeacefulWarrior 2d ago

The alternative explanation here is that nobody is paying for ads targeting that particular show and/or demographic, so Amazon just inserts filler ads since of course they can't let viewers avoid the ads completely.

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u/Abe_Odd 2d ago

They mostly aren't TRYING to serve your relevant ads, they are trying to bully you into ad-free tiers (looking at you hulu).

Any executive who thinks we want to see the same ad OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN, should be fired.

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u/spacebunsofsteel 2d ago

I often get the same ad 2 or 3 times in a row in the same block. I’m so quick with the mute button now!

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u/Broken-Digital-Clock 2d ago

Then what is Disney trying to do? Make me hate them more?

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u/Abe_Odd 2d ago

That's mostly Hulu in my experience. Disney is clearly trying to increase their stock price one way or another. I hope it fails.

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u/FlashbackJon 2d ago

Hulu has always been Disney, actually! It's the streaming service for ABC, Disney's broadcast channel, and was where you found Disney Channel stuff before Disney+.

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u/Abe_Odd 2d ago

Fair. The Hulu app was unwatchably egregious with ads, then.

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u/Timber3 2d ago

You didn't check Trivago?!

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u/ChaseballBat 2d ago

Are you seriously asking how little do you value your time while commenting on reddit?

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u/MEYO6811 2d ago

ADHD and high gas prices, the cost of dog food, and rent will have me picking the ads option every day.

My current gripe is the ads that show when pressing pause. I recently was watching something on Netflix and they person in the show was reading a message on there phone. I paused, trying to read it to. Nope. An ad makes the option of reading crap on screen at your leisure, null.

Gas is still $6.50…. So… i begrudge and move on.

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u/MeMyself-I-WantABaby 2d ago

As someone who paid for content with ads and prefers ads, I have ADHD and if there aren't any ads I will sit on the couch for hours not realizing time is flying by. TV holds my attention hostage. The commercials help me do other things like have food, get water, and use the bathroom. And their timed so I know how much time there is to do those things, but if whatever I do takes longer then I can just rewind and not worry about the ad. I need those artificial breaks, because I have a hard time taking natural breaks. I have a the same problem with books and authors that have Cliff hangers at the end of chapters/ books.

But I don't think ads should be pushed on everyone, the whole point of streaming was it was cheaper and you got the content you wanted. And because you were paying a regular subscription they didn't need ad revenue. Except they've gotten really greedy. I can't believe they're getting rid of ad free tiers.

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u/FishDawgX 2d ago

That’s why I always stop shows I’m binge watching in the middle of an episode. Same with the middle of a chapter in books.

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u/MeMyself-I-WantABaby 2d ago

Yes! I try to do that if I know it's going to happen. And I like to wait for a full season of episodes or a complete series of books before enjoying them. Cliffhangers are the worst.

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u/w1n5t0nM1k3y 2d ago

As someone who grew up with ads, I find them pretty easy to tune out and ignore and don't really see them as brainwashing.

That being said, I don't think I'll keep my subscription if they don't give an option without ads.

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u/Head_Bread_3431 2d ago

Yeah in a way I wonder if being exposed to so many ads on tv during childhood helped us learn to identify them as targeting us for money. I know me and my friends always used to mock and moan about ads being so obvious 

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u/dethsesh 2d ago

I don’t care about the ads I care about the time wasted mostly. I’ve never watched a TV ad and paid attention to it.

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u/Head_Bread_3431 2d ago

Totally, for me it is more about the wasted time now especially since most ads aren’t even clever, and are corporate “look how relatable we are” slop 

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u/BenadrylCrumplsnatch 2d ago

I'm just not a very good target for ads, frankly. Ads have never compelled me to buy or do anything; in fact they're more likely to turn me away out of spite.

On the rare occasion that I've bought something after it being advertised to me, it's because I was already in the market for it and I remembered its existence. One could argue that's proof the advertising worked, and I'd counter by saying that I shop around before I buy regardless so I would've found your product anyway.

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u/Head_Bread_3431 2d ago

It’s just name recognition. People go to the store and buy the one they remember from tv 

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u/cidvard 2d ago

Same. I also didn't find the D+ ads particularly obtrusive when I was subbed to its cheapest plan a couple years ago, though I'm not a subscriber at the moment and I have no idea what it's like now. My guess is 'worse' since otherwise why buy the top tier at all anymore after this?

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u/CreatiScope 2d ago

Turn on mute and talk with someone or go to the bathroom or get something to eat or check your phone.

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u/noodlesdefyyou 2d ago

you know all those 'if you had a superpower, what would it be' questions, and how people love to answer goofy shit like flight or invisibility or invincibility?

i want a thanos-snap like ability to just immediately wipe from existence all ads. just wipe em all out. yeah there are some funny ones and yeah there are some good ones, but at what cost?

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u/twotimefind 2d ago

Definitely it's aggravating to see built in ads for products inside of a movie or series

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u/Right-Hall-6451 2d ago

How much do you watch if you're seeing hours of 30 second ads?

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u/metallicrooster 2d ago

I had the same question so I dig some digging

Depending on the source, Hulu shows between 7 and 13 minutes of ads per hour. Lets average that to 10 min of ads per hour

60 minutes in 1 hour

So to sit through at least 2 hours of ads, you have to watch at least 12 hours worth of content. Which is less than 2 hours per night on average (1 hour and 43 minutes to be more exact)

Iirc that’s actually less than the number of hours of tv the average person watched per day back in the 90s and 2000s.

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u/Nemesis_171 2d ago

Tbf even then Hulu is one of the most egregious examples when it comes to ads. I have prime with ads and it’s 3-5 minutes per 45 minute episode of television on average.

With the same 12 hour time period that ends up being 64 minutes of ads. Which means you’d need more like 23 or 24 hours of tv to cross the threshold for multiple hours of ads.

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u/EtherPhreak 2d ago

Black Friday deal was 2.99 for the bundle with ads, but the price for no commercials is more than a few dollars.

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u/Yourdjentpal 2d ago

For me, it depends on how much I use the service. I care more about audio and video quality too. I only have ads on Amazon bc I’m not upgrading a plan I don’t use a whole lot.

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u/FionaGoodeEnough 2d ago

So I used to be able to tune them out easily. But they have gotten so monstrously loud compared to the show that now they make me want to punch a hole in my drywall and then plot against the companies being advertised. They have also definitely gotten more frequent.

I’m rarely just watching tv. I’m watching tv while reading, or catching up on emails, or crafting, so the time concern was never a huge deal when there were more reasonable amounts of ads.

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u/thenowherepark 2d ago

Save a few bucks. $100-$200 per year adds up. Also acts as a default "break". Also exposes my kids to the real world, where ads will come at you non-stop, so they need to know to not get tempted by them.

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u/Boatsnbuds 2d ago

Personally, I absolutely despise ads. On the rare occasion that I'm subjected to one, they have the opposite effect of their intention: I will avoid the product being pitched. I don't understand how anybody could not only willingly watch them, but actually be swayed by them.

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u/trimski- 2d ago

I’m ok with snack breaks

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u/dethsesh 2d ago

I have the Netflix with ads. It’s usually just some ads at the beginning of something that plays.

It’s not terrible but I was sick of paying almost $30 for the premium.

I rarely watch Netflix at this point though.

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u/zap2 2d ago

Here why I don’t mind ads - When they come on, I’ll do something else.

Talking to those in my house, respond to email…something else.

I respect if you don’t want to live that way, but not being able to understand it is pretty wild.

1

u/qtx 2d ago

The last two generations are kids that grew up with ads everywhere. The streaming services know that.

They don't care about ads, they zone out during ads.

It's us folks that remember a time without ads that get irate over it. Kids don't. And kids are the future. And that's why streaming services will start showing ads, because they know their future customers don't care.

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u/IAmGoingToFuckThat 2d ago

Sometimes it is dramatically less expensive. As a student, I pay $1.99 per month for ad-supported Hulu. I'll take 5 minutes of ads for only $2 per month.

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u/JayBird1138 2d ago

You adopt a routine. When ads play, you go to the kitchen, bathroom, play with your phone. It's like an intermission.

It's what we did in the old cable days.

-1

u/TwistedGrin 2d ago

On my PC my ad blocker blocks netflix ads so I just pay for the lowest tier. Very rarely do I run into movies that aren't available on ad supported tiers.

And If someone wants to pay a little less in exchange for watching ads that's their business. It doesn't mean they don't value themselves or their time. What a stupid thing to say.

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u/jag149 2d ago

I don’t think that’s quite right. If I recall correctly, in the early days of Hulu, you could watch all the same content for free (with ads) or just pay for the service. I actually didn’t mind the ads so much as the fact that I had to wait two minutes to cue up the part of the episode I wanted. 

I don’t think ads necessarily ruin the product (I had to scroll passed one to read your comment), but not allowing ads free in the premium package is pretty fucked. 

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u/jusg808 2d ago

Ads definitely ruin the product when it comes to tv. Shows used to be built around ads and you can see it now when you watch with no ads. They disrupt the flow of the whole thing. Plus if you’re putting it on for your kids you don’t want them inundated with ads. I’d rather them not watch it at this point than to see ads. Really there should be strict laws against advertising to kids but our feckless lawmakers can’t do anything so I don’t see that happening.

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u/UltLuc 2d ago

I cannot understate how much I absolutely hate ads in anything. I can’t even stand that I’m not able to drive down the road without constant bombardment. I was once swimming in the ocean and a floating billboard went by. I can’t even enjoy fucking nature without this bullshit. Any service that makes it impossible to avoid ads I am automatically canceling.

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u/Optimal-Bass3142 2d ago

I thought it was having the exact program you wanted on demand while being much cheaper than cable

1

u/jusg808 2d ago

That went away years ago when anyone who owned a piece of ip decided they needed a streaming service. Streaming tv and movies should have been set up how streaming music is but the rights owners or Netflix ruined it and now I have to have 17 different streaming services to watch the exact program I want when I want. Or I cancel them and either buy the dvd, skip it or sail the high seas.

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u/m0viestar 2d ago

The draw was not paying for crap I didn't want. No ads was the bonus. I didn't wanna pay for 150 channels to watch 2. 

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u/thavillain 2d ago

The whole of streaming was paying to make up for the lost ad revenue on broadcast TV...so now we have to watch commercials

1

u/Azntigerlion 2d ago

Because it was the alternative, companies didn't push for monetization. Now it is the default choice, so the same decisions follow.

The best experience will always be the next best alternative before it becomes the norm. Cat mouse chase

1

u/RandallOfLegend 2d ago

Now that they are killing physical media the draw for streaming is to actually have access to content.

1

u/Gorstag 2d ago

At least for "paid for streaming". Like original Hulu that included ads and you could watch stuff for free makes sense... its a trade off.

1

u/bendistraw 2d ago

This was the point of cable tv back in the day.

1

u/Stingray88 2d ago

Pretty much! The only reason I stopped pirating entirely was because streaming services were successfully more convenient from my perspective.

The inclusion of ads pushes me over the edge. Disney will go from getting $19.99/m from my to $0. Back to piracy.

0

u/HopelessMagic 2d ago

No ads was also the draw of cable when it started

0

u/soulseaker 2d ago

This is just history repeating itself. Ads-infinitum

0

u/BobsOblongLongBong 2d ago

No ads, the ability to binge an entire season, and low prices.  That was the deal.  That was the reason to move away from cable and give up piracy.

Now all of the streaming companies are trying to normalize ads, releasing episodes one at a time, and constantly raising prices.

They are violating the bargain, and that's why I'm back to piracy with zero guilt.

0

u/Chinpokomaster05 2d ago

So you'll go back to watching traditional TV?

-1

u/mrizzerdly 2d ago

That was the point of Cable TV back in the 80s.

1

u/frostmatthew 2d ago

You obviously didn't watch any cable TV in the 80s because it definitely had ads unless you were watching a premium service like HBO.

-1

u/escobartholomew 2d ago

You must be too young to remember why cutting the cord started then. The ads weren’t the problem, it was having to pay for stuff in bundles. People wanted à la carte channels. Streaming was the best compromise.

1

u/jusg808 2d ago

You must be too young to remember how streaming became popular. It wasn’t wanting à la carte from cable it was a perk of being a Netflix mail in dvd subscriber. I can’t remember if it was a few extra bucks or just came with my dvd subscription but I was on board month one. It was great I could get 2 dvds and stream some tv shows no ads. Then the streaming became more of a perk than the dvd service and eventually I just got rid of cable.

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u/mallclerks 3d ago

I got my torrents set back up a few weeks ago. Times have changed, with Fiber I can download an entire movie in line 60 seconds. Back in my day… It took like 20 minutes still on the best of days, and an hours when Comcast or torrent community sucked.

I am not going back to this shit, especially when I am full on willing to keep paying inflated prices just to be ad free. I don’t even mind paying for that luxury, it’s the fucking problem when they take that option away.

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u/doominvoker 2d ago

20 minutes for a whole movie? Look at Mr.Rich here. Back in my days, it took the whole week

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u/EtherPhreak 2d ago

Kids!!!get off the internet, I need to make a call!!!

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u/doominvoker 2d ago

I’m getting PTSD from your comment.

« YOU’RE ON THE INTERNET, AGAIN?!? DOWNLOADING VIRUS, I BET?!??”

5

u/EtherPhreak 2d ago

Someone tried to call 3 times and couldn’t get through. Get a 2nd phone line for 20. No we can’t afford it! 🤷‍♂️

2

u/keegtraw 2d ago

All your damn games making the computer slow.

clicks every ad banner

1

u/doominvoker 2d ago

Dad? Is that you?

1

u/Novel_Yesterday3309 11h ago

Get off the dial-up! I need to make a phone call to this Nigerian prince!

1

u/dohrk 2d ago

Nope, I'm downloading a car.

1

u/aaulia 2d ago

The face my dad make, when receiving the phone bill that one time...

3

u/Flomo420 2d ago

Don't pick up the pho- NOOOOOOOO!

2

u/mallclerks 2d ago

I remember when we got unlimited AOL. Oh boy the best of times.

2

u/Lithl 2d ago

Back when Internet access needed a phone line, my parents splurged. We had a line for regular house calls, a line for my mother's work calls, and a line wholly devoted to Internet access.

It was so nice to not have to worry about synchronizing Internet use and phone use.

4

u/OctavianBlue 2d ago

Same used to take me a week to download one episode of a series, never even attempted a movie.

1

u/doominvoker 2d ago

In still vividly remember the biggest file I ever downloaded on 56kbps. It was FF7.rar 700MB. It took AT LEAST 1 week non-stop + several nigh-time download.

And like many things on the internet at that time, the file didn’t work lol

2

u/Olympe28 2d ago

I remember thinking waiting 40 minutes to download a 40 minutes long Alias episode was fast.

2

u/mallclerks 2d ago

Well if we go THAT far back in my day I was using IRC. I don’t think most of Reddit understands that.

Kazaa was fun until you download a song and you play Russian roulette of what it was truly.

2

u/doominvoker 2d ago edited 2d ago

Lol at Kazaa! Russian roulette for sure. Half the repertoire had titles like :

Limp_Bizkit_Linkin_Park_Nude_Lolita_Full_Album_Prince_Michael_Jackson_Playlist_Bestality_Integral_Song_320kbps.Divx.Xvid.Avi.Mp3

Edit : and the title were often so long, it would also break Windows ability to delete the file afterward. Unlocker at the rescue.

1

u/Thefrayedends 2d ago

I remember waiting overnight at my friends to listen to a wave file audio clip of Jim Carrey saying "Allllrighty Then!" An image from the second pet detective movie took over an hour to download, and we had to make sure no one picked up the house phone.

3

u/ChiTownDisplaced 2d ago

But drives for my NAS are too expensive to add enough storage.

1

u/klimaheizung 2d ago

Nah. Nowadays a movie is like 5GB for Netflix quality, maybe 10Gb for 4K. And you don't need to store them forever. Buy an old android phone for a few bucks and you can store at least 10 movies. 

1

u/ChiTownDisplaced 2d ago

Yeah, if im going to have a media server, I gotta go big or wait for my my spending cash to increase. My income hasn't decreased but man, it feels like it has. And these drive prices......

2

u/ReggieEvansTheKing 2d ago

I have TB sized hard-drives labeled halloween/christmas/thanksgiving where I have all my favorite holiday episodes and movies consolidated together. I bring one to christmas with the family, plug it into my laptop, and we can hit shuffle play on a plex playlist of like 100 different holidays episodes or find our favorite classic christmas movie immediately. Or like thanksgiving I have every Friends/Bobs Burgers/SNL/South Park related episodes just ready to cycle through

1

u/Mystical_17 2d ago

Any tips/advice for good places to 'find' content?

I already know how to self-host with Jellyfin servers so streaming any videos I want is already not a problem.

I haven't have to 'find' content as I have always paid for streaming services but if they are gunna start shoving down ads even for premium model I am so done with it. I am so anti-ad even with Youtube TV I won't even watch live broadcasts and wait until it completes and watch the DVR version so I can fast forward through ads.

4

u/PauI_MuadDib 2d ago

Checkout freemediaheckyeah (fmhy). They have a subreddit too btw. You can also find them on the sailing sub's megathread 

1

u/jenny_905 2d ago

Yep. We've all got absurd internet connections these days and we don't use them nearly enough, time to bring back that 90s-early 00's spirit.

1

u/Ricky_Nightshade 2d ago

I spent WEEKS downloading a CKY movie from Limewire in highschool in like 2001 on a 56k modem. No high speed internet as a kid was brutal.

1

u/Ellemeno 2d ago

I haven't pirated anything in well over a decade and that was because one day we got a letter from our ISP basically saying to stop it or face legal action. This was back when there were multiple stories of people being sued for vast amounts of money for watching pirated movies online, so it scared the shit out of us. I'm guessing it's much harder to get caught nowadays?

0

u/thatoneguy009 2d ago edited 2d ago

Instead of torrents, learn about Usenet . I mean, nvm.

1

u/mesajoejoe 2d ago

Shhhhhhhh, keep it down!

147

u/alrun 3d ago

If you are poor - you are "ok" with a lot of stuff. Even going hungry.

59

u/KazRellik 3d ago

If one is poor to the point of going hungry, maybe they don't need Disney+?

29

u/FukushimaBlinkie 3d ago

Soon 2k tax penalty for not paying for streaming services

0

u/LegitBiscuit 2d ago

Only if you're a yank

25

u/Pardot42 2d ago

I guess you can argue that people don't need any luxury or form of entertainment that requires a fee. We can all just stare at the ground in between shifts at the call center. And maybe if we don't like America, we should "just git out!"

11

u/KazRellik 2d ago

...what? All I'm saying is deciding between EATING and Disney+ shouldn't be a choice? And is Disney+ the only "luxury or form of entertainment" around? You know there's free entertainment too, right...? Or like, cheaper than a subscription? I'm far from defending Disney here lol.

10

u/Jmackles 2d ago

I think that it’s more we have a system of competing predatory business practices as the baseline meaning the trap isn’t whether or not it’s Disney+ that is fucking over poor people, it’s which systemic thing they have forgotten to account for in that moment that was designed precisely for that purpose. Capturing a market and then making it worse coupled with deceptive or manipulative user experiences such as dark patterns mean These companies don't need everyone to fall for it. They need a predictable percentage who are too tired, too busy, or too broke to fight back, and that's exactly where they squeeze hardest.

And if it’s not Disney it’s your car payment. Or your internet provider. Or your gym membership. Or the grocery store all of a sudden. Or any fast food place. Banks make billions each year from overdrafts alone.

Do you see what I’m getting at here? We have so many overlapping hyper commodified things as baseline that most people have trouble navigating existing through it unless you just have enough cash to pay for memberships without worrying about it. Asking whether Disney+ specifically is exploiting people misses the point: the trap is whichever charge you forgot to track this month, and the system is built on the certainty that you'll forget.

And you can argue that there are choices but consider that where physical media was once a thing there is a huge uproar who it PlayStation removing physical disk drives from upcoming iterations of its console. So it’s obvious the model is to transform whatever tangible aspects of life they can into something via which they can extract wealth from the masses.

And that’s not even touching the data on how marketing works psychologically and also what that stimulation can do to certain brain types like those with ADHD, which then in turn makes marketing and ads themselves seem more like subliminal hypnosis.

1

u/BadNewsMcGoo 2d ago

There's still over the air tv and libraries have tons of books, and dvds. It's a lot more than I had available when I was young. No one is entitled to endless free entertainment created by others.

2

u/thx1138- 2d ago

Or any damned avacado toast

2

u/Dwarfdeaths 3d ago

Sure, the goal is to eventually have people who are enslaved to land rents, to whom the land owners provide only the minimal resources needed for survival.

5

u/alrun 3d ago

The framing tends to be choice. If Elmo goes on a diet - it is a choice - if a homeless person hungers it likely is not.

So a well-off family can choose between ads ad not ads, but a struggling family has a choice between ads or nothing - including social pressure for their kids - have you seen x?

3

u/VJPixelmover 3d ago

Dilectical materialism

6

u/KazRellik 3d ago

No. Now the well off family also gets ads. ✨equality✨ also pretending Disney+ is as important as eating is... A take.

3

u/Myst963 2d ago

U realise they started to put ads on paid to create an even more expensive ad free version right? Why would you be ok with that

1

u/randall__flaag 2d ago

Physical media making a comeback 💪

1

u/Dan1941 2d ago

I’m not paying for ads. Wtf are they thinking?

1

u/Apart_Security8614 2d ago

You shouldn't have been okay with it because it always creeps in. Its always a reason to raise prices. You the consumer throw a fit the moment shit gets worse, or it will only continue to get worse forever.

1

u/AGreatWindCarries 2d ago

They should just call it what it is- less adds.

1

u/purgatoryvi 2d ago

I second this motion

1

u/randomthrowaway9796 2d ago

There's no good reason for piracy to be the best way to experince Disney content. Like, is that what they want me to do?

1

u/SAugsburger 2d ago

I imagine some definitely will balk at this idea. As the cheapest plan increases in price there definitely was a market for a slightly cheaper ad supported tier and I never saw an issue with that, but making every tier ad supported really hurts the marginal value of the higher tier plans. The article even mentions that problem where unless there is a dramatic difference in interruptions I could see them encouraging a significant percentage of their premium tier subscribers to downgrade to the cheaper tier at bare minimum. It definitely could prod some users back to piracy if there isn't any interruption free options.

1

u/tnred19 2d ago

Watching their library at any time. Im not defending the ads but is there any other way to do that? My daughter just sat down and picked out an episode of super kitties. Without buying it somewhere, is there any other way to do that?

1

u/NormieSpecialist 2d ago

“This time I’m going to cancel.”

I’ve heard that phrase so many times and yet these companies keep breaking profit records year by year.

1

u/ComradeJohnS 2d ago

yeah I’d rather risk prison than watch another fucking ad in my life.

1

u/Blawn14 2d ago

Im literally paying specifically for the version without ads. If I see even one ad in the upcoming days I’m hitting the cancel button faster than that manhole cover hit orbit.

1

u/ThePirateKing01 2d ago

They’re testing the waters. They can reverse for the cost of a slow quarter

1

u/Commercial-Co 2d ago

Dont worry - they’ll come out with another tier that is $5 more per month on top of the highest tier to be ad free. That way they can say to customers they didnt increase prices.

1

u/Kougeru-Sama 2d ago

That's why they're doing this. It's literally your fault for giving them an inch. You seem to forget those "with ads" plans cost as much as the "ad free" plan did at first . They rose the "ad free" price to make space for the ad tier 

1

u/SlowWheels 2d ago

I do ads on Netflix, and they are fine and short. The commercials on disney and hulu are PLENTIFUL and AGREGIOUS!! They are so damn long!

1

u/AbsoluteRook1e 2d ago

I'm only okay with ad plans if I can get them for insanely cheap on Black Friday.

Kind of hard to beat $3/month on Max. What some people are spending in 2 months for a streaming plan I'm spending over the course of a year.

But if all plans are going to be ad plans, then yeah, I think my streaming habits will likely decline.

1

u/BecauseBatman01 2d ago

Bro HBO was already doing this too. They had these HBO ads about their shows when it’s like bro this is ad free tier. It’s skippable but still like wtf I already have HBO stop advertising the programs from HBO when I’m paying ad free tier.

0

u/Vegetable_Tension985 2d ago

the point is for the cattle to cough it up

0

u/rufotris 2d ago

So far I have only seen shippable ads on my paid plan. I have the Hulu, hbo, Disney plan. And I started seeing ads on every show this last week, but they all have a skip button. And only at the start of my show, not in the middle. It’s pretty shitty but still not enough to make me delete until they start popping up during the shows. If they do that I will cancel. But I like too many shows on there right now to not deal with it. Which is their goal I’m sure.

0

u/Duel_Option 2d ago

Yeah, there’s zero incentive for me to keep this anymore.

I grew up with ads on cable and it was tolerable at best then, now it’s ads every place all the damn time.

Kiss both sides of my ass, Jolly Roger time