Disney+ has made changes to its user agreement for subscribers in Europe that allow all ad plans and tiers to have ads. Even ad-free plans can now show ads before and after playback. This means that even users subscribed to Disney+’s ad-free Premium plan can now see ads at certain points during playback. That doesn’t seem right. But the new Disney+ agreement sharesallplans “may include promotional content, sponsorships, and advertisements before/after playback of Content and in channels, live/as-live, special events, and any third-party services content.” Although ad-free tiers on Disney+ still won’t show ads during the content the user is watching, they canshow ads before or after the movie or TV series being watched. We do not like that. On top of all, no plan subscribers can fast-forward through ad breaks. Ad-free should mean ad-free, but it looks Disney+ is leading the charge on blurring the lines of what that phrase means.
Ad-Free plans will no longer mean an ad-free experience on Disney+. Instead, it will mean that users will not be shown ads that interrupt the content they are watching, but they canbe shown ads before or after the content. This reminds us of when Netflix decided to add arbitrary “household” definitions to its plans, limiting who could log onto a Netflix account and where. Suddenly the definition of “ad-free” isn’t “no ads;” it’s “no ads in the middle of the content, but some ads before and after it.” Totally unacceptable.
In full, the text of the update to Disney+ user agreement reads, as we saw on IGN, notes “Changes to your Disney+ Subscriber Agreement, include, in summary, the following (though we do encourage you to read the new Subscriber Agreement in full): – We’ve clarified that all Service Plans may include: (i) promotional content, (ii) sponsorships, and (iii) advertisements before/after playback of Content and in channels, live/as-live, special events, and any third-party services content.”
Just to confirm, yes, this means Disney+ can now show ads even on its most expensive tier, which claims to include no ads. For now, it just won’t show them in the middle of programming. That means you can pay around $18.99/month for Disney+ Premium and still see ads.
Disney+ Sets Price Hikes Across All Levels & Bundles
For now, no changes have been made the language of Disney+ user agreements in the United States. But much as we noted in the Netflix example, often companies test these changes outside the United States before bringing them to all regions. We wouldn’t be surprised if Disney+’s new “ad-free” definitions reach US users soon.
Disney+ blurring the lines of what an “ad-free” experience means is the latest in a long list of ways that streamers are reducing the user experience, while squeezing every last penny out of the consumer. Of course, there’s the good old price hike. But, in addition to this, streamers have been creative. First there were password-sharing crackdowns, then physical limits on where accounts could be used, and next, ads were everywhere. Now, “ad-free” is evolving into “ads but not in specific places.” There’s simply no regulation on what streamers can shift in their user agreements. And once Disney+ moves to using “ad-free” to mean “no ads in the middle of content, but some ads between different content,” you can bet other streamers will rush to make the same change.
Will this eventually backfire on streamers? We think it must eventually.
