• by Wayne Friedman , March 8, 2022

Walt Disney says it will be "careful" in all aspects of advertising for its new ad-supported Disney+ tier.

“We're going to be very careful about making sure any advertising is consistent with the content -- what people are watching,” said Christine McCarthy, senior executive vice president and chief financial officer of Walt Disney, speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference on Monday.

“It's not going to be something that's going to be jarring, off topic or off brand.” She adds that: “We will be able to curate advertising that we believe is good for the Disney+ service.”

Long before its recent announcement to start up an advertising-supported Disney+ tier, McCarthy says, there was strong interest from marketers in the original ad-free, subscription service.

“We have also had an incredible amount of advertiser demand ever since the launch of Disney+ -- and as you can see from our results in addressable advertising out of our Hulu business, we have more demand than supply.”

Set to launch later in 2022, news of the ad-supported option for Disney+ comes as the TV industry's big upfront advertising presentations are about to begin this spring.

"The timing was to sell into the upcoming upfront in May,” she says, adding that many of those discussions concerning TV season advertising have already begun.

McCarthy says the ad-supported Disney+ option will have “a lighter ad load and we're also going to make sure that everything complies with child protection policies and any kind of COPPA regulations (Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule), as well as international privacy laws.