How many commercials will you see while streaming Disney+?
How many commercials will you see while streaming Disney+?
Disney+ and Hulu are owned by the same parent company, but do they offer similar ad experiences?
Does a bad streaming ad experience run in the family? The Streamable's user tests determined that Hulu has one of the worst commercial viewing experiences in all of streaming, and that streamer is owned by one of the world’s largest media firms in the Walt Disney Company.
Disney also owns Disney+, and I thought it only fair to give this service a chance to redeem the disappointing experience I had while using Hulu. Was it any better? Check out my thoughts below!
Everything you need to know about the ad experience on Disney+
What’s the ad experience like on original Disney+ shows?
If you’ve read any of these articles before, you know the drill by now. I tested a 30-minute show and a 60-minute show, both of which were Disney+ originals. As my 30-minute show, I chose the new Pixar series “Win or Lose,” and for the 60-minute series I picked the 2023 Star Wars live-action show “Ahsoka.”
Commercial break length was standard across both titles: breaks lasted between 15 seconds and one minute, 45 seconds in duration. I never saw a 15-second break during playback, as these seem reserved for the pre-roll ad that comes before every episode.
“Win or Lose” episodes had three breaks each during playback, adding up to between three and five minutes of ads per episode. Episodes of “Ahsoka” had five breaks each, resulting in around seven to 10 minutes of commercials each.
What’s the ad experience like on licensed Disney+ shows?
Disney+ doesn’t license a ton of content from other sources, but there are some options available. For this test, I chose “The Simpsons” as my 30-minute show, and “Jessica Jones” — which originally debuted on Netflix before moving to Disney+ — as my hourlong series.
The ad experience was more or less consistent with original shows on the streamer. Each episode was preceded by a short ad, and episodes of “The Simpsons” had two or three ad breaks each during playback. “Jessica Jones” episodes had four or five breaks each, totaling up to the same three to five minutes of ads per half-hour episode, and seven to 10 minutes per hourlong episode.
What’s the ad experience like for movies on Disney+?
There are essentially no movies licensed from other studios or streaming services on Disney+, and considering the size of the Disney movie collection throughout the decades, that’s no wonder. With that in mind, I tested a Disney animated classic in “Cinderella,” as well as the Disney+ original movie “Descendants: The Rise of Red.”
I was pleasantly surprised by the ad experience here. Both types of movies had around five minutes of ads total, which was less than I had expected. Disney+ doesn’t put all ads at the start of the movie like some other streamers do, but there were only three commercial breaks per film, and they were the same 30 to 105 seconds in length that I saw while watching Disney+ TV episodes.
Does Disney+ put ads on kids content?
It appears Disney+ follows the strategy of other streamers in this regard. There were no ads when I turned on “Bluey,” one of Disney+’s most popular shows for younger children. However, other titles I watched like “Cinderella” and “Win or Lose” are also undoubtedly targeting a youthful audience, and I saw commercials during those. Therefore, it’s safe to say that while titles intended for toddlers and very young kids don’t have ads, other shows and movies for children will come with the same ads as every other Disney+ title.
Does Disney+ have pause ads?
No, I never saw a pause ad while streaming on Disney+. It’s important to note I was using my web browser for this particular test, so viewers may have a different pause ad experience while using the service on a smart TV or streaming player.
Final thoughts
I went into my test of Disney+’s ad-supported plan hoping that it would be a breath of fresh air compared to Hulu. I came out somewhat disappointed; Disney+ doesn’t pummel viewers with the same ads over and over again like Hulu, nor does it have as many. But its commercial experience is closer to Hulu’s than I was hoping in the end, and the amount of commercials kids see on content that both children and adults can enjoy was another let-down.
Disney+
Disney+ is a video streaming service with over 13,000 series and films from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, National Geographic, The Muppets, and more. It is available in 61 countries and 21 languages. It is notable for its popular original series like “The Mandalorian,” “Ms. Marvel,” “Loki,” “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” and “Andor.”