Disney Plus With Ads Is Not a ‘Hail Mary’ Strategy, CFO Says
variety.comTodd Spangler NY Digital EditorDisney CFO Christine McCarthy insisted that media giant’s move to introduce a cheaper, ad-supported version of Disney Plus later this year is not a “hail Mary” to try to hit aggressive streaming-acquisition goals with a lower entry price.The goal of Disney Plus with ads is to provide consumers an additional choice for how they want to subscribe to the service, according to McCarthy, speaking Monday at Morgan Stanley’s 2022 Technology, Media & Telecom Conference.“We had some preconceived notions of what consumers wanted” before the company launched Disney Plus, she said — in other words, the assumption was that people generally wanted zero advertising.
McCarthy said Disney did some additional research and found that some consumers viewed ad-supported streaming services more favorably than ad-free services. “We also had an incredible amount of advertiser demand,” she added.
The company last week announced plans to launch an ad-supported subscription plan for Disney Plus, to launch first in the U.S.
in late 2022. It hasn’t revealed the cost of Disney Plus with ads, only that it will be less than the regular no-ads version, which in the U.S.
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