Disney+ Explores a Free Tier As YouTube Draws TV Viewers (businessinsider.com)
- Reference: 0184395108
- News link: https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/26/07/10/1727227/disney-explores-a-free-tier-as-youtube-draws-tv-viewers
- Source link: https://www.businessinsider.com/disney-discusses-free-tier-viewers-youtube-2026-7
> Product and tech chief Adam Smith spoke about enabling free-tier content during a streaming town hall on Thursday afternoon, one staffer said. Smith didn't share a timeline for this initiative or a sense of the scope, this person added. A person familiar with Disney's streaming strategy said these talks are part of an ongoing discussion about concepts to better serve fans. Currently, the Disney+ and Hulu bundle costs $12.99 a month with ads or $19.99 without ads at full price.
[1] https://www.businessinsider.com/disney-discusses-free-tier-viewers-youtube-2026-7
Television Model (Score:2)
So, content produced and broadcasted freely to the public funded by advertisements that are weaved into the show. Haven't we seen this model before?
Re: (Score:2)
Those who fail history class are doomed to repeat it
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It even pre-dates television. Lots of golden age radio shows had advertisements not just weaved into the show, but were outright named after the sponsors.
The Ford Sunday Evening Hour
The General Electric Concert
Kraft Music Hall
Maxwell House Showboat
Palmolive Beauty Box Theater
Philip Morris Playhouse ...just to name a few.
This trend only continued once television became widespread. My favorite is the the Colgate Comedy Hour! A whole hour of toothpaste commercials interspersed with variety acts.
Everything old
As with all drugs, the dealer always provides . . (Score:1)
. . . the first hit for free.
Disney needs to reinvent themselves (Score:2)
More and more of their legacy content is becoming public domain and modern generations not restricted to just TV and Cinemas are watching different companies characters so the old strategy of the vault has been cracked. Disney is Diswho to the average brainrot viewer and they need to come up with some new ideas instead of recycling the same old stories.
Book (Score:2)
You might want to check out the book, "Television is the New Television", by Michael Wolff. Ten years after this book was published, corporations are still doing the media-shuffle pretty much as outlined in this book.
So what are they going to do? (Score:2)
$20 for ad free
$15 for w/ads
Would free be
$0 w/MOAR Ads!
Or would it be a limited selection of content, stuff comes out first on the paid subs levels?
Something even more aggravating and dickish like the first 8 episodes of whatever free, but oh look you have to subscribe to get episodes 9 and 10?
Regardless of what youtube and Tubi etc might be doing there is psychology in play here that I expect is going to leave either subscribers or would-be subscribers feeling resentful about the model.
Re: (Score:2)
Might be longer time gates on the movies and so on?
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah.... I can't imagine Disney+ or Hulu giving away a meaningful amount of free content considering that they already suckered their users into paying $15 a month for maybe 20 hours a month of fresh content that contains about 20% advertising. It wasn't always like that, but they slowly enshittified the product knowing that kids are already hooked on it.
Maybe it's a ploy to get people to watch the first episode or two of a new series in the hopes that they will get them hooked? I know that Apple TV does th
Re: (Score:3)
Yeah,
I kinda like Disney+, my family and I do watch quite a bit of content on it. It has gone down hill some though. I don't really pay for the ad tier it is bundled with my wife's mobile plan (so yes I do pay for it) but that bundle includes other features/services/tethering rules we want and is still the most economic to get them, at least without completely switching carriers.
I don't think I'd be a subscriber if we had to pay 'full rate'
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Free will likely be just ads , like that radio station from Demolition Man.
No thanks, I'm good (Score:1)
I had a free D+ subscription for a while.
Older Disney stuff is good, the new stuff is 100% woke garbage.
Re: (Score:2)
Well, since that was a term invented and self-applied by the far left, it's a hard to define clump of negative feelings that lead to idiotic decisions.
Self-loathing, racism, sexism, and inverted jingoism dressed up as caring about things that can't be changed because they already happened.
A political movement directed at ending Democracy and establishing a Socialist Dictatorship, but the people responsible don't let on to that in public very often.
What we used to call White Liberal Guilt - A way for
Re: No thanks, I'm good (Score:2)
You're such a sad little man
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> I had a free D+ subscription for a while.
Then your wife died at Disneyworld due to a food allergy and you weren't allowed to sue?
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It's not "woke" that is bad, it's the fact that it is lazy and incredibly stupid, as if it was made by the most inept nepobabbies simply because they can. I grew up with both men and women as heroic characters, and it wasn't that bad. What is bad is that everyone who is in charge of writing ignores what makes writing works, and with all the tools at their disposal, there is no excuse. So I am thinking it is deliberate(ly stupid).
Re: (Score:2)
[1]Back then, studio execs, we were, we were just dopes in suits. Not like today. [youtube.com]
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fJbG7R2oAI
Disney + Hulu "bundle" (Score:2)
I wonder how long this completely artificial content split will last? On the one hand, they charge more because they can (weakly) pretend you're getting TWO channels rather than one... but, on the other hand, the high mucky-mucks always want to slap their own single brand all over everything.
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Yeah. I've wondered that myself. One of those should really go away, and since they're trying to boost Disney+ by putting all the Hulu content on it, I think it's clear which should go.
But there may be licensing and contractual reasons not to. There may be some rider on Hulu from back when it was a joint venture, or from when Disney bought or bought out the others. If not, they probably still won't want to discard Disney+, because they're Disney. They won't want to get rid of Hulu, because that's th
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> I wonder how long this completely artificial content split will last?
Disney has stated that they intend to finish rolling Hulu into the Disney+ experience by the end of the year. However, I have no doubt they will still have a pricing differential of the additional Hulu content (just like Amazon has Prime Video and MGM+ for "extra" content, or Paramount+ vs Paramount+ Premium).
Free tier? (Score:2)
Translation: 20-25 minutes of content, 35-40 minutes of ads, per hour. No thanks, I cut the cord 30 years ago because of too many ads. Not going back. Disney thinking about introducing a free tier smacks of desperation. Has the greed finally started to erode things to a distasteful level?
Targeted content based on interest (Score:1)
Disney can offer all the free content it wants. Great for the kids. But for us older crowds, our household has started watching more YouTube content. User created content can be awful yes but say you enjoy hiking and travel. There are tons of videos on YouTube of actually persons visiting state parks and showing off the pros and cons of what they offer. I don't think they can replace YouTube for that at least.
Re: (Score:2)
I've never really considered any of the user-created videos on YouTube as being living room TV content. I'm not gonna sit down to a plate of Chipotle and put on a video of someone repairing their car, though I might certainly watch the same thing on my iPad while I've got my brakes in million pieces.
Re: Targeted content based on interest (Score:1)
I am so addicted to the cop videos of people being arrested for deleting someone or dui. Something is wrong with me. Lol