If You Don’t Already Have Ad-Free Disney+, Now Might Be the Perfect Time to Upgrade

Disney+ is changing its advertising game — and you may not like it.

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Over the past year, Disney+ has expanded its ad experiences to give advertisers new ways to engage audiences “while preserving the quality and experience that viewers expect on Disney platforms.” This also means new premium ad experiences for viewers, which means your Disney+ experience could be changing soon, if it hasn’t already.

These changes are thanks to the Disney eXperience Composer (DXC), which is Disney’s internal creative platform for building, delivering, and measuring interactive ad formats. The first format launched in April 2025 and is called Gateway Go. It presents viewers with offers or reminders they could act on with the click of a button.

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Disney also introduced Pause Ads on Disney+ in October 2025. Pause Ads appear when a viewer pauses content, “creating a natural opportunity for brand messaging without interrupting the story.”

Later, Disney launched Pause+ to include Billboard, Trivia, and Carousel. These formats allow advertisers to tailor a range of objectives, from brand storytelling to purchase consideration.

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You might have seen Ad Selector while streaming, which debuted in early 2026. This allows viewers to choose the video ad they want to watch, which has been driving engagement rates across the platform, according to Disney.

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“What sets this work apart is not just the breadth of formats, but the speed at which they were brought to market,” said Alex Combs, VP, Product Management – Ad Platforms for Disney Entertainment and ESPN. “Each release informed the next, enabling teams to achieve parity across platforms and scale rapidly while maintaining high creative and performance standards. By combining platform flexibility with a viewer‑first design philosophy, Disney is laying the foundation for the next generation of premium advertising in streaming.”

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Essentially, it sounds like Disney is working pretty hard on the ad experience on Disney+, and if you ask us, that means even more ad types could be on the way. Of course, no one likes commercials, but choosing which commercials you see seems slightly less annoying overall.

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We’ll be on the lookout for even more Disney+ updates you need to know about. In the meantime, make sure you stay tuned to the Disney Food Blog for the latest Disney news and beyond!

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