By Dayanara Analuisa
The wait is finally over for Disney fans with the ad-free streaming service, Disney Plus, that launched on November 12. For $7 a month, Disney Plus introduces a new way to stream all things Disney.
The streaming service competition is fierce after Disney Plus signed up over 10 million users in less than two days. Some of the success was due to Disney’s partnership with Verizon. Verizon is offering a free one-year unlimited access to Disney Plus for customers with an unlimited plan. Also, Disney Plus pricing is the lowest compared to other streaming services like Netflix, HBO, Apple TV, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video.
Ricky Strauss, President of Content and Marketing for Disney Plus, said that Disney Plus is the main streaming service that offers a vast catalog of content not only from Disney but from its other brands. This includes Pixar, Marvel, National Geographic, and Lucasfilms.
However, the main factor of why Disney fans are getting the service is nostalgia.
“We’re leaning into the nostalgia, said Agnes Chu, Vice President of Content and Marketing for Disney Plus. “We’re leaning into the fact that many of our subscribers will be fans who love titles we have created in the past [and love] seeing new extensions or reimaginings or reboots of them.”
Reboots, remakes, and spinoffs are a big contributing factor for new subscribers. Disney Plus also provides a selection of original series only available on their platform. Titles like High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, Star Wars’ The (Man-da-lor-ian), The Lady and the Tramp remake, and Encore are only a few that customers are looking forward to.
Unfortunately, Disney Plus did get off to a rocky start. On launch day, there were many reported problems with connecting to the service. Individuals took this opportunity to jump on the bandwagon and hacked these customer’s accounts.
“We’ve never had demand like we saw that day and what we’re continuing to see,” Disney’s direct-to-consumer chairman, Kevin Mayer said. “There were some limits to the architecture that we had in place were made apparent to us that weren’t before.”
Other problems include complaints of the design and overall interface. There are still a few bugs to work out which Disney has addressed and fixed in the new update. Users can now resume and restart content and add tv shows or movies to their watchlist.
It’s still too soon to tell if Disney Plus will have a major impact on other streaming services, but Disney continues to have further updates to improve its app to guarantee a more enjoyable watch for customers.