The company is also looking to reach more of those subscribers through one seamless experience, with Disney+’s Hulu and ESPN tiles now letting subscribers access those services—and upgrade their accounts—all in one place. In addition to more than 5,000 live events airing through the ESPN tile in the first 90 days of its debut on Disney+, the tile is set to reach atypical sports fans and families through alt casts and bespoke programming.
Disney’s global ads president, Rita Ferro, recently told ADWEEK that around 50% of Disney+ signups go to its ad tier each month. With the increased viewership, the company is also looking to reach more midmarket advertisers, recently adjusting its ad sales team structure to bring more self-service video inventory to brands that previously didn’t advertise on the streamer.
Prime Video brings streaming inventory back to Earth
In January, Prime Video debuted its ad tier, automatically enrolling its subscribers and shaking up the streaming ad market. Amazon reports that its ad-supported Prime Video tier has around 115 million ad-supported U.S. viewers (and more than 200 million worldwide).
That influx of inventory helped bring streaming prices down in the most recent upfront, with buyers saying CPM (cost per thousand viewers reached) discounts ranged anywhere from the mid-teens to 45%, depending on where the pricing started. For instance, when Netflix launched its ad tier around two years ago, it was seeking CPMs of roughly $65. This time around, with a buyer’s market, the streamer’s numbers were below $30.
Although there are discounts, volume is way up. In Magna’s latest ads forecast, the company noted that ad-supported streaming “grew dramatically.” In the U.S., the proportion of ad tier users grew from 5% to 17% for Netflix, from 10% to 30% for Disney+, and from 0% to 80% for Prime Video.
Looking ahead, Prime Video is expanding its ads into new markets in 2025, including Brazil, India, Japan, the Netherlands, and New Zealand. The company is also continuing to find new opportunities to incorporate shoppable and tech with its sports offerings, including telling ADWEEK exclusively that it will bring the National Basketball Association to Black Friday along with its yearly National Football League matchup.
Max-ing out on new markets
Over the past nine months, Max has launched in 73 new countries across Latin America, Europe, and Asia, and the company added 7.2 million new subscribers in the third quarter, bringing Warner Bros. Discovery’s total DTC subs to more than 110 million globally.
In a recent earnings call, CEO David Zaslav attributed the accelerated subscriber growth to projects such as House of the Dragon and The Penguin, as well as titles like Dune: Prophecy, The White Lotus, The Last of Us, and Peacemaker.
