Last year, Disney and Charter Communications announced a brand new carriage deal that would see Spectrum cable customers get access to an ad-supported version of Disney+ included in their package.  However, as part of the deal, some channels like Freeform were removed from the cable platform.   And for those Spectrum customers on the sports bundle, they also would get ESPN+ included in the bundle.

Earlier this year, Spectrum cable customers could activate their free Disney+ accounts, giving them access to a wide selection of shows and films from across Disney, Pixar, Star Wars, Marvel and National Geographic.

This new deal would also see Disney boost its Disney+ subscribers by over 8 million, as while these are sold to Charter at a discounted rate, this is still a major boost for the company.

However, according to Puck, the pickup of Disney+ and ESPN+ apps by Spectrum customers has underperformed, with the take-up of both apps down to single digits.

Charter hasn’t really marketed these apps to its customers and is expected to ramp up that promotion as it moves forward, especially as it makes similar deals with other streaming platforms like Paramount+ to create a new “bundle.”   Cable companies are also looking to adjust their offerings to customers, reducing the number of linear channels they provide and adding access to streaming services to make the bundles look more desirable.

While the deal with Charter is good for Disney in the short term, this might just be a temporary workaround as more and more people leave cable.

There are also other issues about this specific Disney bundle with Charter since if you still want access to the ad-free version of Disney+, you’d have to pay anyway, so you might not bother activating the free version.  If you have the Disney Streaming Bundle with Hulu, ESPN+, and Disney+, you also won’t benefit from this add-on.  So it’s a bit clucky how all of this works together, and it looks like a lot of people haven’t bothered to activate their free Disney+ accounts.  Plus, in the last six months, there have only been two major shows released on Disney+, “Echo” and “The Acolyte”, so this might also not have helped.

This low take-up of the offer is also not good for Disney’s advertising business as it needs more people watching Disney+ to make more money from ads, so it’ll be interesting to see how Disney promotes this offer to Spectrum customers.

Roger’s Take:  The free option for Disney+ with Spectrum fixes a short-term situation for both companies. Cable is slowly dying, and Disney needs to replace its cable income.  In the long run, this solution isn’t going to work but it’s also telling how few people have taken up the free access to Disney+.   Without the option to upgrade to ad-free or the bundle with Hulu, I wouldn’t have bothered taking up the offer either, though I would suggest, if you haven’t done so, maybe set it up so a family member who doesn’t have Disney+ could get access.

Are you a Spectrum customer?  Have you signed up for Disney+?  Let me know on social media!

Roger Palmer

Roger has been a Disney fan since he was a kid and this interest has grown over the years. He has visited Disney Parks around the globe and has a vast collection of Disney movies and collectibles. He is the owner of What's On Disney Plus & DisKingdom. Email: Roger@WhatsOnDisneyPlus.com Twitter: Twitter.com/RogPalmerUK Facebook: Facebook.com/rogpalmeruk

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