The Walt Disney Company is the third richest company in the world. That's important context to know as we dive into how you are paying more for Disney+ to be ad-free but that might still get ads regardless.
Cable made money on ads, but streaming doesn't usually have them. Over the last few years, streaming services have quickly found out that there is no such thing as exponential profit, meaning that most of them are plateauing with membership and profit. God forbid they're okay with the millions to billions of dollars they still make a year. That's not good enough! Think of the poor CEOs and their seventh yacht they can't buy. They must make more money! This is part of the reason that price hikes keep happening on your services. The cost of shows is also ballooning along with all other expenses in this world because CEOs just can't take a pay cut to help provide for the people who work under them. That would be crazy talk for Bob Iger to make less than $40 million! Many streaming services, Disney+ included, have offered lower-priced tiers to cost less but have ads. A person can pay for a premium service to avoid that.
However, the new Terms of Service that went out on February 12, 2025, for Disney+, ESPN+, and Hulu were confusing. One of the sections in the Subscriber Agreement (which you can see the entire thing here) stated:
"...as we continue to increase the breadth and depth of the content we make available to you, circumstances may require that certain titles and types of content include ads, even in our 'no ads' or 'ad free' subscription tiers."Disney+ Subscriber Agreement
The headline on the surface looks bad, but as The AV Club via Boing Boing dug into, what is happening sort of makes sense in the bigger picture. A representative from Hulu clarified that even premium services would have ads specifically for content that would have ads built into the broadcast in the first place.
"The update only applies to sports and other live events that would have ad space built in anyway."The AV Club
This makes sense. As an avid baseball fan and looking forward to all the coverage from our FanSided sister site, House That Hank Built, there are naturally commercials during the sporting events between innings. On the surface, this is understandable, even if it is annoying for premium users.
However, the chilling part that Boing Boing found out while covering this harkens back to a frankly ridiculous move on Disney's part. The company updated its arbitration clause after they were sued and tried to dismiss the lawsuit against a widow whose partner died in their theme parks. Disney was trying to avoid it because the man had a Disney+ account and the arbitration clause protected the company. After embarrassing themselves and fierce public backlash, Disney apparently doesn't want to go through that again. They wrote in their new Subscriber Agreement:
"'Dispute' includes any claim, dispute, action, or other controversy, whether based on past, present, or future events, whether based in contract, tort, statute, or common law, between you and us concerning the Services…"Disney+ Subscriber Agreement
And also:
"Arbitration Agreement Survival. This arbitration agreement will survive the termination of your relationship with Disney+ and/or ESPN+ and/or Hulu, including any revocation of consent or other action by you to end your participation in the Services of any communication with us."Disney+ Subscriber Agreement
So, they updated their Terms of Service to include not being able to sue them if an incident happens in their park... if you have a Disney+ account. And this is for life! If you cancel your subscription and never watch anything Disney ever again, you are still legally bound to this. Because of course the greedy Mouse would do this. Go back to the first sentence of this article, dear reader.
Third richest company in the world.
There is one stupid silver lining. You have until March 11, 2025, to get the heck out of this. However, you must write a physical letter and mail it to them, formally requesting to opt out of this arbitration. If you go to the Subscriber Agreement site, look up section 7g, and it has the legal jargon to walk you through this nonsense in case you ever need to, you know, sue Disney in the future in case your partner dies, thanks to their incompetence.
While the ad-free stuff makes sense to me, the rest of it baffles me. It shows how cruel corporations can be towards not only their workers but also the people who consume their products. It's a good reminder that corporations are not and will never be your friend. Everything they do is to maximize their own value so they can continue to be rich while normal people suffer. It's a reminder to always read the fine print.
Anyway, here's a fun Disney history fact to close out: In 1941, Disney animators went on a labor strike after mass firings and low wages. These workers brought a guillotine to their strike to make sure that old Walt Disney himself got the point that they weren't happy he had all this wealth, and they didn't. The workers ended up winning, seeing their pay doubled. Just a fun fact for no particular reason.