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Just cancelled Disney+ with the one worded reason: commercials

by Datagenerator 4y ago

rendall 4y ago
Wow. Thanks for the head's up. I have Disney+ and have not yet seen this, but I'm done as soon as it does.
- scarface74 4y ago
  It’s not true. Disney+ is adding a lower cost ad free tier. The current plan doesn’t have ads.
  - djbebs 4y ago
    That lower cost ad plan is the same cost as the current plan with no ads.
  - darkwater 4y ago
    Now. Just like when food companies sells the same package as before (or a slightly bigger version) as "now with 20% free product!" and after a few months, they remove the free product discount. Price increased, less people noticed it.
    - scarface74 4y ago
      I’m sure people will notice if for instance HBO only sold a version with commercials after having an ad free product since 1980.
      - darkwater 4y ago
        Sure. But Disney+ in 12 months will have the ad-based version at today's ad-free prices. (And the ad-free subscription at a premium price.
        scarface74 4y ago
        Ok. We all knew that $7.99/month was unsustainable long term.
        pbhjpbhj 4y ago
        Really, I assumed Disney+ would basically be all profit. Can you link info about the size of the loss they're making?
        scarface74 4y ago
        https://www.investors.com/news/disney-earnings-disney-stock/ https://www.investors.com/news/disney-earnings-disney-stock/ > The Dow giant still expects Disney+ to be profitable in 2024. Disney+ isn’t profitable once you take into account “transfer payments”. They may not be profitable at all yet. But they specifically mentioned being profitable including transfer payments. That basically means that when Disney movie studios use to sell streaming rights to another company - say Netflix. They may make for instance $500 million (made up number). Disney+ still “pays” the Disney movie studio $500 million. It’s counted against Disney+ profits. Of course the Disney company as a whole keeps most of that money. But it still has to pay part of it to the actors, producers, etc who have a revenue share agreement. It was a big point of contention when Black Widow was released.
        darkwater 4y ago
        That's text-book financial engineering. I understand the creators' concerns, especially the ones that signed contracts before Disney decided to create Disney+, but on the Disney side I really don't care. It's more, I'm explicitly hostile to it due to the balkanization of streaming platforms now that every big producers start to have their own end-user distribution, subscription-based service.
        scarface74 4y ago
        It’s not “financial engineering”. It’s standard managerial accounting. I’m an MBA drop out and studied this over 20 years ago (undergrad in CS. The dot com boom called my name). In most large organization, different departments are separated into “cost centers”. Managers are often responsible for their own profit and loss. Internal “costs” are assigned to departments working together. Why should the Disney+ manager get credit for making $450 million in profit by causing Disney Movie Studios to lose $500 million? How is that good for the overall business? Again I’m completely making up numbers. We had a method to pay one bill and get all of the content you wanted - it was called “cable”.
  - zerocrates 4y ago
    They're just actually introducing the ads at the current pricing level, and adding a higher "no ads" level. Of course they would have ended up there soon enough anyhow, but they're just doing it immediately.
flanbiscuit 4y ago
Disney+ is going to have ads? ... just googled it: So they are _adding_ a new plan that's cheaper and ad-supported, and they are not touching the current plans. So nothing will change for my current subscription plan thankfully. > Disney+’s ad-free subscription tier, which currently costs $7.99 monthly and $79.99 annually, will remain available. and this: > What’s more, if the Disney+ profile being used is associated with a child, no ads will play. source: https://tvline.com/2022/05/17/disney-plus-with-ads-subscription-plan-details/ https://tvline.com/2022/05/17/disney-plus-with-ads-subscript... edit: A clarification for the advertising to kids things. Looks like it's no ads to preschool kids > Regarding kid-targeted ads on Disney+, Ferro said, “Yes, we’re going to have advertising… to kids, but it’s going to be controlled advertising with a lot of parental levers to pull. We’re not going to collect data on that.” She added that there won’t be advertising in preschool content on Disney+ at launch. source: https://variety.com/2022/digital/news/disney-plus-advertising-plan-majorit-1235271205/ https://variety.com/2022/digital/news/disney-plus-advertisin...
- jsnell 4y ago
  > Disney+’s ad-free subscription tier, which currently costs $7.99 monthly and $79.99 annually, will remain available But it will not remain available at that price. Instead that's what the plan with ads will cost, and the prices of the current ad-free plan will be bumped up by 30%.
  - TheRealDunkirk 4y ago
    We all knew this was introductory pricing to weasel into the space. This was even the predicted timing.
  - anonymousab 4y ago
    And that ad-free plan will eventually have ads. Ads are infectious and will always spread uncontrollably once you let them in. Give an inch and they will take a lightyear.
  - flanbiscuit 4y ago
    oh I missed that, I'm only just finding out about this now. Can you point to where you read that? I just found this contradiction to what I had mentioned earlier (going to edit my original message) > Regarding kid-targeted ads on Disney+, Ferro said, “Yes, we’re going to have advertising… to kids, but it’s going to be controlled advertising with a lot of parental levers to pull. We’re not going to collect data on that.” She added that there won’t be advertising in preschool content on Disney+ at launch. https://variety.com/2022/digital/news/disney-plus-advertising-plan-majorit-1235271205/ https://variety.com/2022/digital/news/disney-plus-advertisin...
themitigating 4y ago
It doesn't have commercials and there will be a less expensive plan that does have them but that's optional. So your reason is wrong.

Just cancelled Disney+ with the one worded reason: commercials

rendall 4y ago

Wow. Thanks for the head's up. I have Disney+ and have not yet seen this, but I'm done as soon as it does.

scarface74 4y ago
It’s not true. Disney+ is adding a lower cost ad free tier. The current plan doesn’t have ads.
- djbebs 4y ago
  That lower cost ad plan is the same cost as the current plan with no ads.
- darkwater 4y ago
  Now. Just like when food companies sells the same package as before (or a slightly bigger version) as "now with 20% free product!" and after a few months, they remove the free product discount. Price increased, less people noticed it.
  - scarface74 4y ago
    I’m sure people will notice if for instance HBO only sold a version with commercials after having an ad free product since 1980.
    - darkwater 4y ago
      Sure. But Disney+ in 12 months will have the ad-based version at today's ad-free prices. (And the ad-free subscription at a premium price.
      - scarface74 4y ago
        Ok. We all knew that $7.99/month was unsustainable long term.
        pbhjpbhj 4y ago
        Really, I assumed Disney+ would basically be all profit. Can you link info about the size of the loss they're making?
        scarface74 4y ago
        https://www.investors.com/news/disney-earnings-disney-stock/ https://www.investors.com/news/disney-earnings-disney-stock/ > The Dow giant still expects Disney+ to be profitable in 2024. Disney+ isn’t profitable once you take into account “transfer payments”. They may not be profitable at all yet. But they specifically mentioned being profitable including transfer payments. That basically means that when Disney movie studios use to sell streaming rights to another company - say Netflix. They may make for instance $500 million (made up number). Disney+ still “pays” the Disney movie studio $500 million. It’s counted against Disney+ profits. Of course the Disney company as a whole keeps most of that money. But it still has to pay part of it to the actors, producers, etc who have a revenue share agreement. It was a big point of contention when Black Widow was released.
        darkwater 4y ago
        That's text-book financial engineering. I understand the creators' concerns, especially the ones that signed contracts before Disney decided to create Disney+, but on the Disney side I really don't care. It's more, I'm explicitly hostile to it due to the balkanization of streaming platforms now that every big producers start to have their own end-user distribution, subscription-based service.
        scarface74 4y ago
        It’s not “financial engineering”. It’s standard managerial accounting. I’m an MBA drop out and studied this over 20 years ago (undergrad in CS. The dot com boom called my name). In most large organization, different departments are separated into “cost centers”. Managers are often responsible for their own profit and loss. Internal “costs” are assigned to departments working together. Why should the Disney+ manager get credit for making $450 million in profit by causing Disney Movie Studios to lose $500 million? How is that good for the overall business? Again I’m completely making up numbers. We had a method to pay one bill and get all of the content you wanted - it was called “cable”.
- zerocrates 4y ago
  They're just actually introducing the ads at the current pricing level, and adding a higher "no ads" level. Of course they would have ended up there soon enough anyhow, but they're just doing it immediately.

flanbiscuit 4y ago

Disney+ is going to have ads? ... just googled it: So they are _adding_ a new plan that's cheaper and ad-supported, and they are not touching the current plans. So nothing will change for my current subscription plan thankfully. > Disney+’s ad-free subscription tier, which currently costs $7.99 monthly and $79.99 annually, will remain available. and this: > What’s more, if the Disney+ profile being used is associated with a child, no ads will play. source: https://tvline.com/2022/05/17/disney-plus-with-ads-subscription-plan-details/ https://tvline.com/2022/05/17/disney-plus-with-ads-subscript... edit: A clarification for the advertising to kids things. Looks like it's no ads to preschool kids > Regarding kid-targeted ads on Disney+, Ferro said, “Yes, we’re going to have advertising… to kids, but it’s going to be controlled advertising with a lot of parental levers to pull. We’re not going to collect data on that.” She added that there won’t be advertising in preschool content on Disney+ at launch. source: https://variety.com/2022/digital/news/disney-plus-advertising-plan-majorit-1235271205/ https://variety.com/2022/digital/news/disney-plus-advertisin...

jsnell 4y ago
> Disney+’s ad-free subscription tier, which currently costs $7.99 monthly and $79.99 annually, will remain available But it will not remain available at that price. Instead that's what the plan with ads will cost, and the prices of the current ad-free plan will be bumped up by 30%.
- TheRealDunkirk 4y ago
  We all knew this was introductory pricing to weasel into the space. This was even the predicted timing.
- anonymousab 4y ago
  And that ad-free plan will eventually have ads. Ads are infectious and will always spread uncontrollably once you let them in. Give an inch and they will take a lightyear.
- flanbiscuit 4y ago
  oh I missed that, I'm only just finding out about this now. Can you point to where you read that? I just found this contradiction to what I had mentioned earlier (going to edit my original message) > Regarding kid-targeted ads on Disney+, Ferro said, “Yes, we’re going to have advertising… to kids, but it’s going to be controlled advertising with a lot of parental levers to pull. We’re not going to collect data on that.” She added that there won’t be advertising in preschool content on Disney+ at launch. https://variety.com/2022/digital/news/disney-plus-advertising-plan-majorit-1235271205/ https://variety.com/2022/digital/news/disney-plus-advertisin...

themitigating 4y ago

It doesn't have commercials and there will be a less expensive plan that does have them but that's optional. So your reason is wrong.