You may soon be able to watch content on Disney Plus for the low, low price of free. Disney is reportedly considering adding a free tier for its streaming service, which was first launched in 2019, to compete with rivals like YouTube and Tubi.
According to Business Insider, chief product and technology officer, Adam Smith, spoke about potential plans during a streaming town hall on the afternoon of July 9. No timeline or sense of scope was provided for the proposal to let viewers access Disney Plus content without a subscription, but the plan is said to be part of an ongoing discussion at Disney about how to better serve fans.
A standalone Disney Plus plan currently costs $11.99 with ads and $18.99 without ads. There are also multiple plans on offer that bundle Disney Plus with other services, such as Hulu and HBO Max. Disney recently announced that it would merge Hulu and its standalone app into Disney Plus.
A potential free plan for Disney Plus would respond to similar plans for a number of competing streaming services. Two of the biggest competitors are YouTube and Tubi. Fox, which is the parent company of Tubi, is investing even more in free streaming by buying Roku for $22 billion. Roku also has its own free streaming service, The Roku Channel. Combined, The Roku Channel, Tubi, and YouTube accounted for over 18% of U.S. TV watch time in April, according to Nielsen data.
As subscription-based streaming services like Disney Plus continue to raise their prices, they are finding it harder to compete with free alternatives. While some paid streaming services offer limited free trials, none of the biggest names in the business, such as Netflix or Apple TV Plus, offer a free plan to access content. If Disney can figure out how to implement a free plan for its streaming service, it would have a leg up on the competition.