Will Netflix, Disney+ Gain Or Lose Subscribers With Ads?

Netflix and Disney+ both plan to offer subscribers new ad-supported plans as competition between the popular streaming services increases.

Disney+ shares rose sharply on Wednesday after the streaming platform announced that 14 million new subscribers had joined the service in the second quarter of 2022. The total number of Disney streaming subscribers — including those using Disney+, ESPN+ and Hulu — is now 221.1 million worldwide, surpassing the 220.67 million worldwide for Netflix.

All services hope to increase future subscriptions by offering lower-priced, ad-supported subscription tiers. However, it’s not clear if all current subscribers, used to ad-free Disney+ and Netflix, will keep the services if the lowest-priced option includes ads.

Disney+ announced that its ad-supported plan will launch on December 8 at a price of $7.99 per month – the current price for an ad-free subscription. Subscribers who want to stay ad-free will need to tune into what’s called the “premium plan,” which comes at a significantly higher price of $10.99 per month.

in one tweet In announcing the new ad-supported plan and pricing tiers, The Walt Disney Company described the changes as “highly anticipated” and “offering consumers more choice than ever.”

Responses to the Disney tweet indicated that many thought the changes were neither expected nor ready to offer anything of value to current subscribers.

“‘Pay more or you’ll get ads'” answered Twitter user @the_d_delane. “The Disney Difference.”

“You guys literally killed Hulu with the amount of ads you guys put out. I’m afraid Disney Plus will be just as bad.” tweeted @Ozziepez88. “Literally no one expects that except for CEOs.”

“You will lose subscribers with this increase,” @BeatrizRuiz80s tweeted next to a “thumbs down” emoji.

In a statement received from news weekKareem Daniel, chairman of Disney Media & Entertainment Distribution, said the new ad-supported plan and “an expanded range of plans across our streaming portfolio” would “provide greater consumer choice at a variety of price points to meet diverse needs.” to meet the needs of our customers and appeal to an even wider audience.”

Details about the changes at Netflix, which is losing more subscribers than it is gaining this year, are still unclear at this time. While the streaming giant’s ad-supported plan is expected to launch early next year at a lower price than ad-free plans, the company hasn’t announced pricing yet or if the new plan will be accompanied by price increases for ad-free tiers.

Netflix’s chief operating officer, Greg Peters, said during a quarterly earnings interview in July, according to Deadline, that offering the ad-supported plans would benefit the company overall.

“We know consumers have some price sensitivity,” Peters said, according to Deadline. “We’re pretty optimistic … It’s not like suddenly everyone on ad-free Netflix is ​​going to switch to Netflix opening.”

Some Netflix users have already threatened to cancel their subscriptions if ads are introduced.

“When Netflix starts showing ads, I’ll smash that cancel button,” says Alex Wilhelm, Editor-in-Chief of TechCrunch+ tweeted on June 27th.

A non-scientific survey tweeted by The Next Web a day earlier found that 86.6 percent of respondents would cancel their Netflix subscriptions “if it introduced ads.”

news week reached out to Netflix for comment.