Well, they weren't really "ads" - just prepopulated links in the Active Channels list to major media websites. it wasn't just the US with links to Disney, other

Well, they weren't really "ads" - just prepopulated links in the Active Channels list to major media websites. it wasn't just the US with links to Disney, other localized versions of Windows 98 had prepopulated Active Channels to local media companies (e.g. if you set Windows 98 to the UK then you'd get links to Sky and the BBC). I don't think Microsoft was paid to include those links, part of me really thinks the PMs behind the feature just really wanted to show it off and get buy-in from those media companies.