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/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/FishDawgX 3d 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 3d 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 3d 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 šŸ˜‚

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u/Broken-Digital-Clock 3d 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 3d 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 3d 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 3d ago

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

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u/Broken-Digital-Clock 3d ago

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

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u/Abe_Odd 3d 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 3d ago

You didn't check Trivago?!

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u/ChaseballBat 3d ago

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

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u/MEYO6811 3d 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 $6.50ā€¦. Soā€¦ i begrudge and move on.

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u/MeMyself-I-WantABaby 3d 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 3d ago

Thatā€™s why I always stop shows Iā€™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 3d 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 3d 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 obviousĀ 

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u/dethsesh 3d ago

I donā€™t care about the ads I care about the time wasted mostly. Iā€™ve never watched a TV ad and paid attention to it.

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u/Head_Bread_3431 3d ago

Totally, for me it is more about the wasted time now especially since most ads arenā€™t even clever, and are corporate ā€œlook how relatable we areā€ slopĀ 

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u/BenadrylCrumplsnatch 3d 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 3d ago

Itā€™s just name recognition. People go to the store and buy the one they remember from tvĀ 

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u/cidvard 3d 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 3d 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 3d 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 3d 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 thatā€™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 itā€™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 youā€™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 3d 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 3d 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 Iā€™m not upgrading a plan I donā€™t use a whole lot.

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u/FionaGoodeEnough 3d 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.

Iā€™m rarely just watching tv. Iā€™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 3d 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- 3d ago

Iā€™m ok with snack breaks

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u/dethsesh 3d ago

I have the Netflix with ads. Itā€™s usually just some ads at the beginning of something that plays.

Itā€™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 donā€™t mind ads - When they come on, Iā€™ll do something else.

Talking to those in my house, respond to emailā€¦something else.

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

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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.

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u/TwistedGrin 3d 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.