Nearly every other streamer has an ad-supported plan, but they usually aren’t free.
Like most streaming services, Disney+ keeps getting more expensive, and it certainly wouldn’t be wise to rule out yet another price hike somewhere down the line. But we’ll save that doom and gloom for another day. Today, it sounds like the House of Mouse is weighing up the possibility of introducing a free tier of its streaming platform.
As reported by Business Insider, Disney sources say the company might be planning to make some of the content on Disney+ available without a paid subscription, in what appears to be a fightback against younger people flocking to free platforms like YouTube for their fun. BI was told that Disney’s Chief Product and Technology Officer, Adam Smith, hinted at the company’s potential plans during a town hall event. He did not offer any specifics as to when it could happen, or the scope of such a move.
It’s unclear what sort of existing content, if any, Disney would be willing to move in front of the paywall, or whether it would instead produce new content specifically for a free Disney+ plan. The company introduced vertical videos to the service this year, which will include original short-form programming as well as promotional content for shows and movies available on the platform. This is just speculation, but you could easily imagine some hypothetical bite-sized vertical TV shows living on a free tier of Disney+ in the future.
Netflix doesn’t currently offer a free tier, while Prime Video requires you to have an Amazon Prime membership to gain free access to its ad-supported tier (so also very much not free). Apple does allow people without a paid membership to watch select season premieres of some of its original shows, but it also lacks a free plan, so Disney+ would stand out from the crowd if it made the first move in that regard.
There are a variety of Disney+ plans to choose from right now, but the bundle with Hulu and ads currently costs $13 per month, with the ad-free Disney+ and Hulu Premium bundle costing $20 per month.
We’ve reached out to Disney and will update this article if we learn anything.
