You might’ve seen over the weekend that Disney+ updated its Subscriber Agreement to include language that hints at (or rather, plainly states) Disney’s plans to populate the Disney+ experience with advertisements. You can read the Subscriber Agreement here — you’re looking for 1.1.(e). Admittedly, it’s not a great look.
“Service Plans may include advertisements which interrupt Content such as series and movies (namely, the advertisements are shown at a point during the playback of the Content),” the agreement reads. “All Service Plans may include: (i) promotional content, (ii) sponsorships, and (iii) advertisements before/after playback of Content and/or in channels, live/as-live, special events, and any third-party services content,” it continues.
Disney+ leaves the door open for ads
The language states that ads could appear on any plan, even the ‘Premium’ one. It makes you wonder what you’re even paying for, if not to be free of the ads you’d get via DStv or similar. We reached out to Disney South Africa to determine what these changes could look like for South Africans.
The answer we got was reassuring. First, Disney made it clear that previous updates to the Subscriber Agreement included similar provisions. It also said the viewing experience wouldn’t change regardless of whether they’re a Premium or Basic subscriber.
Read More: There’s a new Disney+ app in South Africa, with a R49/m ‘Basic’ plan on the menu
It also mentioned live content on the Disney+ app, and how ads could be handled. Customers may come across advertising or sponsored content when watching live events, though this sounds like an ad embedded into the broadcast itself. As you might see ads when watching football on SABC, for example. That’s fine by us. It also stated that customers may happen upon promotional content advertising Disney’s home-grown content.
That sounds a whole lot like Prime Video’s current policy. Viewers may see an ad for a new show or movie made by Amazon before starting something new. Not to say that it’s right. Disney’s pricing page doesn’t explicitly state it won’t include ads, so we guess that’s on us for expecting more from a company valued at $177 billion.
Finally, the updated Subscriber Agreement says that customers may not employ an ad blocker to dodge these. Doing so might get your plan cancelled, or worse, bumped down to the “nearest equivalent Service Plan available”. Thus far, Disney+ South Africa offers the R180/m Premium plan and the new R50/m Basic plan. That’s a fairly long way to fall.
