More Details About Disney+ Ad-Tier Subscription Revealed in Code

We’re getting new info out of a deep-dive into Disney+ programming. Will customers miss two rarely-used services if they’re struck from the ad-based tier?

It’s amazing that there are people out there so dedicated to digital sleuthing that they’ve already uncovered a bit of info about a little-used Disney+ feature not making its way to the ad-tier coming later this year. According to MacRumors’ Steve Moser, programming code inside the future Disney+ option is designed to explicitly tell Disney+ ad-tier subscribers that they can’t use two features all other subscribers do. Don’t fret too much, however, as the two options removed from the ad tier are Groupwatch and Shareplay. If you’ve never heard of them, you’re not alone. Still, for readers who have enjoyed watching Disney+ remotely with friends and family in other locations, perhaps this could be something that leads you to stay away from the $7.99 ad-tier plan.

Disney+ Basic (ad-supported tier) tidbit: "Groupwatch and Shareplay unavailable for accounts on the ads tier.” pic.twitter.com/KuTeJiCEtn

— Steve Moser (@SteveMoser) October 24, 2022

An article out of The Verge notes this is a continuing trend that we’ve seen with Netflix as well:

If Disney actually does gate SharePlay and GroupWatch to its non-ad-supported tiers, it wouldn’t be the only one cutting features from its less expensive plan. While Netflix doesn’t support SharePlay in the first place, it has announced that its most basic plan won’t let you watch downloaded content offline. It’ll also be limited to 720p and won’t have all the content available to normal Netflix subscribers, though the company does say it’s working on the latter point.

One significant positive coming out of the ad-based tiers being adopted by Disney+ and Netflix: we’re likely to get more transparency regarding ratings. It’s harder to hide stats for poorly-performing series when those shows are generating specific revenues paid out to partners. That’s not to say the companies will be eager to provide detailed information at that level, only that we may get a small amount closer to a day where we can determine streaming successes and failures as easily as we can with the box office. And that’s important so we can figure out what’s popular with our culture and where our society is going in terms of entertainment.

So what do you think? Have you ever used SharePlay or GroupWatch before? Would these features matter to you if they were cut from the ad-based tier? Let us know in the comment below.

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