From November 1st, Disney+ in Spain will offer a version with advertising at a price of 5.99 euros per month. The company launched this plan in the US back in December last year and intends to expand it internationally during 2023. Besides Spain, the new ad-supported subscription will also be available in the UK, France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Norway, Sweden and Denmark, the platform said in a statement on Thursday.
The new Standard Plan with Ads, as it’s called, means the creation of two more contract plans: Standard and Premium, both ad-free. Until now, Disney+ in Spain had a single subscription modality at a price of 8.99 euros per month or 89.90 euros with the annual subscription. From November 1st, the following contract options for Disney+ will be available in Spain:
Standard with ads: 5.99 euros per month.
Default: EUR 8.99 per month / EUR 89.90 for an annual subscription.
Bonus: 11.99 euros per month / 119.90 euros for an annual subscription.
As the platform announced, the available content will be the same in all options. Each of them has access to series such as The Mandalorian, The Bear, Murders Inside, The Simpsons or Grey’s Anatomy, as well as an extensive catalog of films and documentaries. However, there are differences in some functionalities. The standard versions allow up to two streaming playbacks at the same time, while the premium version extends this option to up to four simultaneous profiles. The version with ads does not allow downloads for offline viewing, an option available in the no ads options. In terms of video and audio quality, the two standard versions offer display quality up to Full HD 1080p and 5.1 and stereo audio, while the premium option increases display quality up to 4K UHD/HDR and Dolby Atmos sound.
There is one important quirk to note: Current Disney+ subscribers (paying $8.99 per month) will see their subscription automatically upgrade to Premium from that day. Those who do not switch plans will be billed at the new price ($11.99 per month) starting with the first billing cycle, after December 6th, as per the company’s announcement. You have the option to switch to either of the two standard plans at any time, but you have to be careful about the switch if you choose to do so.
A year after Netflix
The version of Disney+ with advertising arrives in Spain, a year after Netflix’s ad-supported plan, in November 2022. The price of this option on the Stranger Things platform is 5.49 euros per month. It currently offers three other contract options, all without ads: Basic (7.99 euros per month), Standard (12.99) and Premium (17.99), although in several countries the basic option without ads is no longer available.
Last May, Netflix announced that the ad-supported subscription had reached five million monthly active users six months after its launch. Later, in July, when they presented the results for the second quarter, they assured that this subscription modality had managed to double the number of subscribers in just three months. In any case, they realized that it still wasn’t bringing the benefits it was supposed to.
With the platform war over, the world of streaming is in a phase where it’s all about gaining economic advantage, rather than grabbing subscribers at all costs. Hence the movements seen in these services in recent months. What began with the introduction of advertising on platforms that, until recently, boasted of their total refusal of advertising, continued with the implementation of measures to limit the possibility of password sharing outside the home or, in part, with price increases.
In July, Netflix announced that it had gained 5.9 million subscribers, well above its forecasts, and even more so considering that these were the first results the company had after implementing measures to avoid the sharing passwords outside of the home in the US. However, the stock market didn’t react to these results with such enthusiasm and the company’s shares fell that day. One explanation for this is that while the company has added new subscribers, the average profit it makes for each individual is 3% lower than a year ago, as many of the new customers came from countries where the company has low prices maintained to gain followers.
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