Frugal folks often face a choice when subscribing to a streaming service: Pay more for the ad-free plan, or save money by choosing a cheaper plan and enduring a regular diet of ads.
Now, Walt Disney Co. is pledging to make that choice a little easier.
The company has announced that its streaming service Disney+ will show about four minutes of commercials for each hour that viewers watch programming on its ad-supported version, which is set to launch sometime this year, The Wall Street Journal reports.
The newspaper notes that four minutes of ads per hour is considerably less than what many streaming services schedule in their ad-supported versions. Services such as Hulu — which Disney co-owns — show about twice as many minutes of ads per hour.
In addition, standard television networks show far more ads each hour, typically between 18 and 23 minutes per hour, the WSJ reports.
Disney+ also will not air any commercials in programming intended for preschool children once its ad-supported version launches. Rita Ferro, Disney’s president of ad sales and partnerships, told the WSJ that Disney is “never going to collect data on individual kids to target them.”
Thus far, Disney has not announced how much the ad-supported version of Disney+ will cost. Currently, the ad-free version costs $7.99 a month or $79.99 a year.
The WSJ notes that Disney might be looking over the horizon at coming competition from Netflix, which has said it might introduce a cheaper ad-supported tier at some point.
Looking to cut the cable cord in exchange for a more affordable streaming service? Check out “12 Streaming TV Services That Cost $20 a Month — or Less.”
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