In case you haven’t heard, DISNEY+ IS OUT. I REPEAT. DISNEY+ IS OUT. For those who haven’t seen the news (which is impressive because it is everywhere), Disney+ is the newest streaming service to hit the market. Almost four years in the making, Disney has been aggressively preparing for their November 12th release. Disney+ will include classics from the vault (oooh, mysterious), all but the few recent Pixar films, your favorites from the Marvel and Star Wars franchises, and National Geographic documentaries. But if you’re (somehow??) sick of the traditional films you know and love, even better news: Disney+ is launching several original films, live remakes, and new TV shows for their streamers.
The platform is arranged into five categories: Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and National Geographic. Moreover, subcategories include all Disney Channel original shows and movies, musicals, Disney+ originals, princesses, Pixar shorts, documentaries, and more. High School Musical: The Musical: The Series is a mockumentary about high schoolers at East High performing the classic movie on stage (as an avid Glee fan, I’m stoked). The Mandalorian has already been a hit, with a new episode to drop within the week. The Imagineering Story gives viewers a behind-the-scenes look at the history and magic of the happiest place on earth (update: I’ve already watched the first episode. I’m hooked. Desperately waiting for the next episode. Can’t stop thinking about it. Send help.). Free Solo will have fans on the edge of their seats. Noelle stars Anna Kendrick and Bill Hader in a new Christmas comedy.
More importantly, the launch of Disney+ represents a new era in the world of streaming services. Disney has been pulling movies and shows from other streaming services, losing millions in licensing fees, to curate their own service, complete with over 500 movies and 7,500 TV episodes (numbers that are expected to grow to 600 and over 10,000 according to Morning Brew). According to Fast Company, CEO Bob Iger invested $1.58 billion in the company BAMTech, originally a tech arm for Major League Baseball, later renamed Disney Streaming Services. If you’re worried that your Netflix subscription is going to become obsolete, no need to worry yet. Their shares only dropped 1.2% on launch day according to Reuters.
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With all this content, something was bound to go wrong, and it did, with many users unable to connect to the server due to the overwhelming volume of users on launch day. Many say that Disney’s aggressive marketing, while effective, pushed too many people to the service at once. In an NBC News article, it was stated that by 9:00 a.m. on launch day, over 8,000 complaints were already logged. But hey, good marketing then, right? One little glitch could not deter me from what I consider to be one of the *no, not an exaggeration* greatest things to happen to entertainment in my lifetime.
The service costs $6.99 a month, or $69.99 a year (or $5.83 a month instead). Disney+ undercuts Netflix by quite a bit, with Netflix charging between $8.99 and $15.99. There is also the option to bundle Disney+ with Hulu and ESPN for $12.99 a month. Users are able to stream on up to four devices and download all content offline in HD. It’s available on iOS, Apple TV, Xbox One, Amazon Fire TV, Android, Google Chromecast, Roku, and more according to Digital Trends.
If you’re like me and barely know where to start with this platform because you’re so! dang! excited!, follow @disneyplus and @disney on Instagram and see what promos catch your eye. If you have that one film in mind that you just need to know is on there, you can see the whole list here. Or you can start a free trial and see what movies and shows you fall in love with. The company reported that Disney+ hit 10 million subscribers within the first day, and the app has been downloaded 3.2 million times. Their goal is to have 10-20 million subscribers within the first year and 60-90 million subscribers by 2024. Now that’s #brandgoals. Their marketing says it all: don’t get left behind. Maybe it’s just my severe FOMO, but why would you want to miss out on the goosebumps you get everytime you see this…