With Disney+ offering content from its parent company’s almost 100-year history, many have questioned why certain content from Disney’s almost hundred-year legacy isn’t available for streaming on Disney+, well I want to share my point of view and if Disney+’s ad tier could potentially lead to more legacy content being made available to Disney+ subscribers.

Advertisers Want More Content To Place Their Inventory:

Let’s start with an easy point. Advertisers continually want more content to buy ad space for. Currently, if we look at the United States, Disney+’s advertising capabilities are rather slim. In the US, some of the titles that Disney+ could make some decent ad revenue from include titles like “Glee” and “The Orville”, but there is a couple of popular Disney-owned series which could benefit from being added to Disney+ with the new ad-supported tier, those include “The Golden Girls”, “Futurama” and “The Mickey Mouse Club” among many other titles.

The more content on Disney+ means, the more space for an advertiser to buy advertising slots for. However, big-name advertisers will favour having their ads on a show like “The Simpsons” over a show like “Glee” just based on the trending metrics. However, some smaller companies might be more interested in running their ads on less popular content like “Zorro” but at a discount compared to ad space on “The Simpsons” or “The Mandalorian”.

Disney+ Being Profitable Could Lead To More Legacy Content:

This is a massive thing with every streamer, profitability. If the ad-supported tier helps push Disney+ into the green, then Disney has a reason to expand the content library on the Disney+ service. The wisest decision for Disney when it comes to adding legacy content to Disney+ would be to turn the platform profitable before investing millions into restoring other titles. Disney will also be able to make more revenue from selling ad space on some vintage content which would lead to Disney potentially being able to recoup the cost of restoration and royalties.

Legacy Shows Have More Value On An Ad Tier Than Legacy Films:

Let’s move on to the final point, which is that many legacy TV series are designed to have ads in between, unlike many classic films. Disney could sell more ad space on television series like “Zorro” than they could for a movie like “Father Of The Bride”. Legacy TV series also run longer than a single film and offers more episodes to run ads on across multiple episodes, that is excluding preschool shows like “Bear In A Big Blue House” or “Higglytown Heroes”.

The Potential Downsides:

Now let’s just run through a couple of quick reasons why this may not always be the case and why certain shows may not be added despite the potential of ad sales within the programming. The first major reason is that many legacy series contain outdated cultural depictions of people of colour, women, LGBTQ+ and those with disabilities. Some advertisers may not be interested in buying ad space on such content. The second major reason, as I previously mentioned, is that preschool shows can’t have advertising due to legal issues. For instance, Disney probably spent a lot of money restoring “Bear In A Big Blue House” but can’t monetise it as much as the Disney-owned ABC series “The Golden Girls”. Besides the two points, I just made, there aren’t many other downsides to adding legacy series to Disney+.

Final Thoughts:

Disney’s content library is deep and full of riches. Many diehard Disney fans, as well as fans of classic films and classic TV, want to see more from Disney’s almost bottomless vault, including everything from 20th Century Pictures to Playhouse Disney to Jetix. There are so many titles in Disney’s library which needed to be preserved. Disney+ is not a museum for film and television history despite many people believing it is. Some legacy series may cost too much for Disney to even consider releasing without an ad-supported tier which could help cover the costs of certain shows. Do we know for certain if the ad plan will convince Disney to add more content to Disney+ from decades ago? No. Is it possible the ad tier might make Disney see value in select older titles? Almost definitely.

What Do You Think? Could Disney+’s Ad Tier Lead To More Legacy Content?

Ethan Holloway

Ethan is an autistic, type one diabetic, Disney fan who grew up with properties like Iron Man, The Lion King, Aladdin and Toy Story. Ethan wants to someday get his own books/films/TV shows made to inspire those with disabilities to be themselves, but for now, Ethan covers his opinions on Disney, their content and how Disney+ can improve.

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