Ad-Supported Disney+ Plan Now Available on Roku Devices, Four Months After Initial Launch
Did Disney and Roku sit down and hammer out an agreement over advertising revenue splits? Or did someone at the House of Mouse wish upon a star to make their dreams come true? Either way, Roku has announced that the ad-supported Disney+ tier — known as Disney+ Basic — is finally available to all users of its streaming devices.
The rollout of Disney+ Basic on Roku puts an end to a four-month absence for Disney’s ad-supported subscriber plans on the leading streaming platform in the United States. Neither the service by itself nor any iterations of the Disney Bundle (which adds in Hulu and ESPN+ at a discount) that offered Basic were available. The Streamable noted the absence when Disney+ Basic was launched in December, and reached out to Disney for more clarification regarding its unavailability on Roku platforms.
“We remain committed to working with Roku and reaching an agreement that is fair and advantageous to both parties, giving their users more choice and flexibility,” a Disney spokesperson said at the time.
Neither side has offered any extra details since then, but from that response, it does sound as if a dispute over the division of ad monies led to Disney+ Basic’s nonappearance. Roku users were still able to sign up for the ad-free version of Disney+.
Roku customers now have more devices than ever before available to watch Disney+ Basic, as well. This month, the company launched its first line of in-house manufactured smart TVs. Roku TVs come in both the Select and Plus series and are exclusively available now at Best Buy.
The wider-spread availability of Disney+ Basic should boost its already-impressive numbers. A report from March showed that 20% of signups for Disney+ in the month of December were for the Basic tier. That means Disney’s ad-supported video-on-demand (AVOD) offering outperformed both Netflix’s and HBO Max’s ad-accompanied tiers in their first 30 days on the market.
Disputes between streaming providers and device manufacturers of this nature are fairly common. Just last week, for example, Apple TV users finally got access to Netflix's Basic with Ads plan, nearly five months after that option first came to the market. Each of these companies has a bottom line to protect, and they’re clearly willing to withhold their services from each other until they feel a fair deal has been struck.
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.”