‘Disney+ Basic’ Ad-Supported Presentation Reveals Length, Frequency of Streaming Ads

Disney+ is less than three months away from launching its first-ever ad-supported subscription tier, which it is calling Disney+ Basic. Beyond the fact that the option will launch on Dec. 8 and that it will cost $7.99 per month, very little has been revealed about how the operation will work. However, on Monday, Business Insider reported additional details about how the streamer is pitching the Basic service to potential advertisers.

The company is reportedly planning on running 15 and 30-second commercials which will be unskippable in both pre-roll and mid-roll positions across all video content. While Disney is planning on keeping the number of ads per hour low, the company is also telling potential advertisers that it will implement frequency caps to ensure that users don’t see the same ads over and over, which has been a common complaint for users of corporate sibling streamer Hulu.

According to the presentation that Disney is giving to advertisers, these caps will be limited to one view per hour, two per day, and 12 per week. To help in minimizing this type of repetition, Disney is also encouraging advertisers to run multiple creatives per campaign so that viewers do not become annoyed or desensitized to the message.

Disney announced over the summer that it did not plan to include advertising on content aimed at preschoolers at launch, but in addition, all commercials on Disney+ that are shown to users 15 years old and younger will be governed by the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act guidelines and will not include any behavioral or geo-targeting.

For anyone 16 or older, there will be content restrictions, including no ads for alcohol, political campaigns, or rival streaming services.

The ad deck also reveals some internal numbers that the streamer is using to entice companies to advertise on the platform. Disney is promoting that of the 89 million monthly domestic users, 62% are adults with no children, despite the streamer’s family-focused reputation. The service touts the fact that 40% of U.S. viewers come from multicultural backgrounds and that households that subscribe to Disney+ have a median annual income of $90,000.

Last week, Disney CEO Bob Chapek reiterated his company’s goal of reaching between 135 and 165 million subscribers by 2024, a target that execs believe will be aided by the launch of the Basic tier.

In conjunction with the launch of the ad-supported option, the ad-free Disney+ tier — called Disney+ Premium — will increase its monthly price to $10.99. The current Disney+ tier is $7.99, the price of the forthcoming Basic option; this means that if customers want to continue paying the same price for Disney+, they can, but they will have to do so while watching ads, which they’ve never had to do before. Chapek has defended the price hike because of how cheap Disney+ has been since launch, especially in comparison to its rival streamers.