Disney Plus with ads in Australia: When is it coming and what will it cost?

The new ad package will launch first in the US.

Streaming service Disney Plus has announced details for its ad-supported package in the US. It will be the first country in the world to get this.

In an earnings call following Disney's fiscal third quarter 2022 financial results, the company confirmed details for the US launch.

What are the details of the Disney Plus ad tier?

The plan will be called Disney Plus Basic and will cost US$7.99 a month. Disney Plus in the US currently costs the same but features no ads. To experience Disney Plus without ads, it will soon cost $US10.99 a month with the Disney Plus Premium package.

That means unlike Netflix, which flagged that its eventual ad-supported tier will be cheaper, the cost of a Basic package is not discounted compared to the existing Disney Plus price. To continue watching Disney Plus without ads, US subscribers will actually pay about 37% more than they do now.

When will Disney Plus with ads be available in Australia?

A US launch date is confirmed for 8 December 2022.

There was no date mentioned for Australia or even anywhere else in the world. The only reference came from The Walt Disney Company's chief financial officer Christine McCarthy in a Q and A session following the earnings report. "We plan to go international sometime next year," she said. That means this new package could arrive in Australia in 2023.

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Australia was one of the earliest countries in the world to get Disney Plus. Considering this, we could speculate that it might also receive this new package in close proximity to the US. However, Disney Plus doesn't have the same advertising infrastructure in Australia as it does in the US. For example, Disney Plus has sister streaming services Hulu and ESPN Plus in the US, both of which currently run ads.

However, Disney does plan to draw on the strength of its linear (broadcast television) advertising business to expand Disney Plus with ads internationally. "We built these strong advertising relationships around the world with our previously existing and currently existing linear footprint," McCarthy continued."So we're confident in our ability to navigate the international advertising marketplace given our depth of knowledge and experience with the traditional linear business. We feel really well-suited to deliver both domestically and internationally on Disney Plus's advertising-based video on demand (AVOD)."

How much could Disney Plus with ads cost in Australia?

There is no confirmed price for this Disney Plus package if or when it comes to Australia. Again, we can only speculate what it might be.

Using the US pricing as a guide, we can guess that a Basic Disney Plus package in Australia might cost the same as it does for Disney Plus now, which is $11.99 a month. Factoring in a similar percentage increase for the Premium package in the US could mean the same package here might be equivalent to $15.99 a month.

But of course, Disney would have different approaches in different countries. The service has different costs across the world.