94% of US Disney+ Subscribers Prefer Paying $3 More to Avoid Ads

WSJ Reports Citing Subscription Service Analytics Firm
Increase in New Subscribers Choosing 'Ad-Inclusive' Plans

Disney+, the US online streaming OTT service, introduced a cheaper subscription plan with ads last December, but most existing subscribers prefer the ad-free option even if it means paying more.

On the 17th (local time), the US daily Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that about 94% of existing Disney+ subscribers who started using the service when there were no ads continue to use the ad-free plan despite the price increase. WSJ cited the latest data from Antenna, a US subscription service analytics company, to report this.

On December 8 last year, Disney+ launched a new "Basic" plan including ads at $7.99 per month (about 10,400 KRW), while raising the price of the ad-free "Premium" plan by $3 to $10.99 per month (about 14,300 KRW), a 38% increase. Despite the dramatic price hike, there was almost no migration to the ad-supported plan. WSJ stated, "This suggests there is room to raise streaming service prices above the current $10.99 per month level in the future."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Choosing the ad-supported Basic plan saves $3 (about 3,900 KRW) per month, but requires watching about four minutes of ads per hour, consisting of 15-second and 30-second commercials. Ultimately, existing subscribers prefer to pay $3 more to continue enjoying content without interruptions from ads.

According to Antenna's data, when limited to new subscribers, Disney+'s ad-supported plan is growing faster than its competitor Netflix. Including Disney-affiliated platforms Hulu and ESPN+, subscriptions to Disney+'s ad-supported plans accounted for 20% of new subscribers in December last year, rising to 27% in January and 36% in February this year.

On the other hand, Netflix, which launched its ad-supported plan a month earlier than Disney+ in November last year, saw only 9% of new subscribers choose this plan in the first month, with the share gradually increasing to 15% in December and 19% in January this year. Netflix's ad-supported plan is priced at $6.99 per month (about 9,100 KRW), $1 cheaper than Disney+'s similar plan, while its ad-free basic plan costs $9.99 per month (about 13,000 KRW).

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.