Disney+’s long-awaited ad-supported subscription tier launched today in the U.S. and the Mouse House revealed that over 100 advertisers bought inventory for its debut, bookending a buzzy year in streaming advertising.

Brands appearing in Disney+ Basic include Google, Verizon, Walmart, Procter & Gamble, Nintendo, Taco Bell and Chanel. The streamer worked with most major agencies including Publicis Groupe, Dentsu, IPG, Horizon Media, Omnicom, WPP, Havas Media, Stagwell and RPA.

Rita Ferro, Disney’s president of advertising sales, told Ad Age that no one marketer category dominates because Disney aimed to diversify its mix.

“It is everything from restaurants to cars to banks to credit cards to toys to insurance,” said Ferro. “It really is broad and that’s because of our audience—Disney is a broad family audience, and we have all kinds of consumers on the platform.”

While Disney+’s initial ads will take the form of traditional 15- and 30-second spots that will run before and during the content, Ferro said more varied forms of advertising—binge, pause and shoppable ads—will roll out at next year’s upfront. That's when Disney+ will be sold as part of the larger suite of Disney’s streaming inventory, including Hulu and ESPN+. For the streamer’s launch, though, Disney+ was sold separately from the company’s other digital assets during the 2022 upfronts, multiple media buyers told Ad Age. 

Disney+'s ad-tier launch follows the debut of Netflix with ads last month. Netflix announced plans to introduce ads to its service in April. While the strategy initially was for commercials to debut later on, the company ended up fast-tracking those efforts. 

“Definitely more clients leaned into Disney+,” said one buyer. “It was sold in upfront, which helped us prepare and budget for the launch…Disney’s budget and CPM asks were also more reasonable at the start. Long term Netflix will catch up, but their sale and launch was rather rushed.”

The buyers also said pricing was competitive with other streaming platforms, such as HBO Max, whereas Netflix asked for industry-high CPMs (the cost to reach 1,000 viewers) for its fledgling product. Multiple buyers told Ad Age that more clients bought into Disney+’s launch than Netflix’s. In July, Disney announced it had secured $9 billion in its upfront negotiations, attributing 40% of the number to streaming sales.

As previously reported, Disney+ will not serve advertising in its preschool content or on kids’ profiles (which can only play G-rated content). Ferro clarified that targeted advertising will only be available to advertisers for audiences over the age of 18, but non-targeted ads will still play for viewers 17 and younger.

Disney+ will also not allow advertising from alcohol brands or political campaigns.

Like Netflix’s recently launched ad tier, audience targeting isn’t available for Disney+ advertisers at launch. Ferro said the streamer is taking a slow rollout approach to its ad product, with targeting capabilities and audience data—a combination of Nielsen’s Digital Ad Ratings and the company’s in-house Disney Select audience IDs—to come by the end of first quarter of 2023.

Disney+ has also gone to lengths to make sure the initial ad experience isn’t too jarring for its consumers, who must opt into the Basic tier with ads for $7.99 per month or Disney+ Premium for $10.99 per month when logging in today. While its sibling platform Hulu is a frequent target of complaints about ad fatigue from excessive creative repetition, Disney+ has chosen to ease into its ad load. Ad Age previously reported that the platform will serve four minutes of ads per hour, but Ferro said, “It won’t be four minutes at launch… because we want to test and learn.”

Ferro also said that frequency caps will be strictly managed: “We will launch with one brand per hour, twice per day, 12 times per week,” said Ferro. “And that is half of what we do today on Hulu in terms of frequency capping to ensure that user experience is obviously front and center to everything we're doing for Disney+.” She added that the cap is applied to individual brand campaigns rather than by advertiser to allow more leeway in a company’s broader creative messaging.

“Disney’s cross-platform empire blurs the lines between streaming and linear, giving them a lot of ways to take advantage of a Disney+ hit like ‘Andor,’ which aired two full episodes across Disney-owned ABC, Freeform, FX, and Hulu recently,” said Kevin Krim, president and CEO of EDO, in an email. “To get those subscribers to stick around, though, Disney’s ad experience has to be seamless for both consumers and advertisers. Most TV viewers are actually OK being served ads in exchange for lower subscription costs, but they still demand entertaining, engaging premium content and quality ads delivered with great technology.”

Subscriber retention is critical for Disney+ moving forward as it pushes the platform toward profitability (direct-to-consumer products, including Disney+, were the source of nearly $1.5 billion in losses on the company’s most recent earnings report). While Ferro said the ad tier is a response to greater desires for “consumer choice and control,” it will also provide a needed flow of revenue for the streamer.

Ferro said Disney will showcase all of the advertisers streaming on Disney+ today on the company’s owned billboards in New York City’s Times Square, along with “a thank you message…for being on this journey with us as a monumental moment for us as a company.”