How many commercials do you really see on discovery+?
How many commercials do you really see on discovery+?
discovery+ is a great way to save a little money and watch top shows, but how many ads are shown on the service?
With the introduction of Max in 2023, many streaming customers may no longer think of discovery+ as a top service anymore. But that’s a mistake; discovery+ still offers a huge range of popular shows from Warner Bros. Discovery cable networks like Discovery, Food Network, HGTV, Magnolia Network, and others.
The streamer offers thousands of hours of programming, and allows customers to choose between ad-supported and ad-free plans. But what is the ad experience on discovery+ really like when you choose the ad plan? I tested it out for myself to give you the answer!
Everything you should know about the ad experience on discovery+
What’s the ad experience like on licensed shows from discovery+?
This experiment was a little tricky to run, as discovery+ operates a little differently from other streamers. The platform is meant to be a brand showcase for WBD linear channels, and therefore doesn’t incorporate a huge amount of licensed content from other sources.
I was able to test a selection of hourlong [BBC] shows using discovery+, however. Across titles like “Frozen Planet” and “Planet Earth,” I saw the same ad experience: each ad break was 1 minute, 30 seconds in length, and there were only two breaks per episode. Including the pre-playback ad at the beginning, it added up to just under four minutes of commercials per episode.
What’s the ad experience like on original discovery+ shows?
For this experiment, I used the discovery+ original “Trixie Motel,” which is an hour long, as well as the popular Food Network series “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives.”
Ad breaks were the same 75 to 105 seconds in length on both shows, and I saw three breaks per episode on “Diners,” and four on “Trixie Motel.” Altogether, it came out to between four and five minutes of ads per episode including pre-roll ads. That was more than I saw while watching the BBC titles, but not considerably more.
What’s the ad experience like on discovery+ movies?
Here, too, it was difficult to compare a discovery+ original movie to a licensed title because of the relative dearth of licensed movies compared to other streamers. In the interest of being thorough, however, I did test two movies for my experiment: “The Steve Irwin Story,” and “Ancient Armageddon.” The ad experience across the two films was the same; following a 15-second pre-roll ad, I saw eight ad breaks per film, each 90 to 105 seconds in length. That added up to around 12 minutes of ads total per feature-length movie.
Does discovery+ have ads on kids’ content?
There isn’t a lot of traditional kids’ content on discovery+, but the streamer does offer titles like “Chopped Junior” and “Kids Baking Championship.” While they did not stream completely ad-free, I only saw one commercial break per episode on each of those shows, and the commercials themselves were only for kids’ titles viewers can stream on discovery+’s companion service Max.
I also tried an episode of “Rachael vs. Guy: Kids Cook Off,” which came with the standard amount of ad breaks I saw on other discovery+ shows, adding up to around 5 minutes per episode. So in all, I’d say ads next to kids’ content on discovery+ is a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to the ad experience.
Does discovery+ have pause ads?
Yes, discovery+ does include pause ads when streamed on select devices.
Final thoughts
I was hoping the discovery+ ad experience would be as good as Max’s, but it didn’t quite measure up. I saw more ads than I did while testing Max, but still less than other streamers like Hulu and Paramount+.
The ad variety was good enough that I didn’t notice the same ads playing over and over again through breaks. Overall, I’d say discovery+’s ad experience is fairly standard; not remarkably good, but not horrifically bad either.
discovery+
discovery+ is a video streaming service that offers more than 70,000 episodes of 2,500+ current and classic shows from several popular TV brands including Discovery, Investigation Discovery, HGTV, TLC, Food Network, A&E, Lifetime, and The History Channel. The service primarily focuses on non-fiction programming and reality TV shows.