Disney+ Wiki, Movies, Series, Subscription Fee & More

Disney+ ( Disney Plus ) is a streaming service owned by The Walt Disney Company through its Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution division . 2 The service offers movies, documentaries, specials, shorts, shows, and television series produced by The Walt Disney Studios and Walt Disney Television . Its interface presents different thematic sections with content from Disney , Pixar , Marvel , Star Wars , National Geographic and Star(the latter, available outside the United States and Latin America).

The service launched in the United States and Canada on November 12, 2019. 3 The service became available in the Netherlands on September 12, 2019, and in the United Kingdom , Spain , France , Germany , Italy , and several European countries. on March 24, 2020. 4 Over time, it expanded to other regions; in Latin America and the Caribbean (except Cuba and the American Virgin Islands ), it began to be available on November 17, 2020. 5It then arrived in South Africa on May 18, 2022, followed by the rest of Africa and the Middle East on June 8, 2022, and later began operations in Hungary , the Czech Republic , Greece , Poland , Turkey , Romania , and other European countries. on June 14, 2022, plus Israel on June 16, 2022.

History

At the end of 2015, Disney launched a streaming service in the UK called DisneyLife to enter the video platform market. 8 9 With the launch of Disney + in the country, it ceased its operations on March 24, 2020. 10

In August 2016, Disney became a minority shareholder in the company BAMTech (which had been spun off from MLB Advanced Media, which specializes in streaming technology) for $1 billion, with the possibility of becoming its majority shareholder in the future. Following the purchase, ESPN announced plans for an ” over-the-top venture project ” based on its technology ( ESPN+ ) to replace its current mainstream television services. 11 12 On August 8, 2017, Disney increased its stake in BAMTech to 75% of the stock for US$1.58 billion. In addition, the company announced plans to launch a second platform under the Disney brand.made up of in-house produced entertainment programming, which would be launched after finalizing the current content distribution agreement with Netflix in 2019. 13 14 Shortly after, Agnes Chu, executive of the Story Development and Franchise division at Walt Disney Imagineering , was the first executive named to the new division as Senior Vice President of Content. 15 Chu directed two projects for release. The first of these was the physical review of all the contents of the Disney archive that have not been digitally restored in order to verify which could be immediately made available both physically and legally on a platform ofstreaming . They also had to review “paper folders with legal agreements” to identify possible problems. 16 On the other hand, Chu met with the leaders of the different Disney content production divisions to decide which productions would be suitable to be released on a streaming service instead of conventional cinema. 16 Chu resigned in August 2020. 17

In December 2017, Disney announced its intention to acquire 21st Century Fox . With the intention of strengthening Disney’s content portfolio for its streaming products, 18 19 the acquisition was completed on March 20, 2019. 20

In January 2018, it was reported that former Apple and Samsung executive Kevin Swint had been appointed senior vice president and general manager reporting to BAMTech CEO Michael Paull, who is leading development. 21 22 In March 2018, Disney’s premium segments division was reorganized with the formation of Disney Direct-to-Consumer and International, which then included BAMTech, which contains “all consumer-facing products and technology “. 23In June of that same year, Ricky Strauss, former head of marketing for Disney studios, was appointed president of content and marketing, although he reported to the president of Disney Direct-to-Consumer and International, Kevin Mayer. 24 25 In January 2019, Fox Television Group COO Joe Earley was appointed Executive Vice President of Marketing and Operations. 26 In June 2019, Matt Brodlie was named Senior Vice President of International Content Development. 27 In August 2019, Luke Bradley-Jones was hired as Senior Vice President of Direct-to-Consumer and General Manager of Disney+ Europe and Africa . 28​

On November 8, 2018, Disney CEO Robert Iger announced that the service would be called Disney+ and that the company was targeting a late-2019 launch . 30 but on April 11, 2019, Disney announced that Disney+ would launch on November 12, 2019 in the United States. Disney stated that it planned to roll out the service worldwide over the next two years, targeting Western Europe and Asia -Pacific countries in late 2019 and early 2020, and Eastern Europe and Latin America.during 2020. International release schedule is subject to acquisition or expiration of existing streaming rights agreements for Disney content. 31 On August 6, 2019, Iger announced that he will offer a streaming package of Disney+, ESPN+, and the ad-supported version of Hulu for $12.99 per month available at launch. 32 At the D23 Expo in August 2019, Disney opened Disney+ subscriptions at a discount for three years. 33

On September 12, 2019, a trial version of Disney+ became available in the Netherlands with limited content available. This testing phase lasted until the official launch on November 12, when trial users upgraded to a paid plan. 34 35 Disney + went on sale in September in the United States with a 7-day free trial after its launch. 36

In October 2019, Disney released a three and a half hour trailer on YouTube to show off its launch lineup for the platform. 37 It was also reported that Disney would ban competitor Netflix’s ads from most of its television platforms, except ESPN. 38 ​39

Disney+ launched on November 12, 2019 at midnight Pacific Time in the three initial announced launch countries. 40 The services had some problems on the first day, from login (about 33% of problems), accessing specific content (about 66%), setting up profiles and watch lists. Some of the issues were caused by third-party devices. 41

On November 18, 2019, a ZDNet investigation found that the accounts of thousands of users were hacked using keystroke logging or data-stealing malware . Their email addresses and passwords were changed, “effectively taking control of the account and locking out the previous owner”, and their login information was put up for sale on the dark web . 42

On March 12, 2020, Vanessa Morrison, previously serving as President of Fox Family and 20th Century Animation , was named President of Streaming for Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Production and will oversee the development and production of Disney+ film content for The Walt Disney Studios for both Disney Live Action and 20th Century Studios . 43 Morrison reports directly to the chairman of Walt Disney Pictures , Sean Bailey . 43

On October 12, 2020, Disney announced a reorganization of its media business with a greater focus on streaming. They plan to add more content for Disney+ and its other streaming platforms (such as Hulu and ESPN+ in the United States and Star+ in Latin America) in the future. 44

On December 10, 2020, Disney announced that one year after the launch of Disney+, it had more than 86.8 million subscribers. 45 It was later announced that, as of January 2, 2021, the platform had over 94.9 million subscribers. 46

In March 2021, Disney announced a price increase for the streaming service that would take place on March 26 of that same year. 47 In the second quarter of 2021, Disney+ added 8.7 million subscribers. 48

In August 2021, The Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Chapek hinted that a possible Hulu , ESPN+ and Disney+ merger in the United States and also hinted that a possible Star+ and Disney+ merger in Latin America could happen in the future. to create an all-in-one streaming service on Disney+. 49

On December 8, 2022, the new Basic with Ads plan launched initially in the United States, at the same time as the original plan’s prices increased. 50

Content

The service is built around major Disney entertainment brands, including Walt Disney Pictures , Walt Disney Animation Studios , Disneynature , Disneytoon Studios, Pixar , Marvel Studios , Lucasfilm , National Geographic and select films from 20th Century Studios , Searchlight Pictures , Touchstone Pictures and Hollywood Pictures . 51 ​52Bob Iger, the former CEO of Disney, revealed that the studio’s strategy is to use Disney+ as a platform aimed at a family audience (and that it will not carry any adult movies or series) while it intends to use the Hulu platform to complete the library . content not suitable for all audiences. 53 Part of the reason was because Disney acquired control of 60% of streaming 54 after the purchase of 20th Century Fox which, after finalizing in early 2019, would include a considerable number of series from Disney-owned chains but not appropriate as Disney+ such as FX. 55The latter would become more apparent after the network change that received shows originally planned for Disney+ such as High Fidelity and Love, Victor , series that were transferred to Hulu for dealing with mature, violent and crude themes. 56 ​54

At launch, the service was expected to have approximately 7,000 episodes of TV shows and 500 movies. 57 Films from the Walt Disney Studios library available for streaming through the service include Disney and Pixar animated theatrical features , Disney live-action films , Marvel Cinematic Universe films , and Disneynature films . 58 The content of National Geographic is also included in the service, as well as the productions of 20th Century Fox Television that were broadcast on the FOX and FX channels.. 59 ​60

The service’s initial original content goal was planned to include four to five original movies and five television shows with budgets of $25 million to $100 million. In August 2018, The Mandalorian , the planned live-action Star Wars series , was reported to cost US$100 million.

On July 8, 2022, the Spider-Man saga was added to the platform, including the MCU movie , Sony’s Spider-Man Universe movie , and his animated Spider-Verse movie on Disney+, to his deal that he would sign. Sony with Disney, to stream legacy Sony content on Disney+. 61

Device support and features

Disney+ is available for streaming through web browsers on PCs like Google Chrome , Mozilla Firefox , Internet Explorer , Microsoft Edge , Safari , and Opera , on computers like Windows and macOS , as well as apps on mobile devices like Android , Apple iOS (including iPad OS ) and Windows Phone , game consoles such as PlayStation ( PS4 / 5 ), Xbox ( Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S) and media players such as Apple TV , Google Chromecast , Roku , webOS , Tizen OS , Amazon Fire TV and Android TV both on televisions and external players such as the Xiaomi Mi Box S and NVIDIA Shield TV, among others. 62 The content available on Disney+ will also be included on the Apple TV app and on November 17, 2020 on Flow . 63

Disney+ allows seven user profiles per account, with the ability to stream on four devices simultaneously and unlimited downloads for offline viewing. Content will be streamable in resolutions up to 4K Ultra HD in Dolby Vision and HDR10, with Dolby Atmos sound on compatible devices. Archived content is available in English, Spanish, French and Dutch, while Disney+ Original content has additional language options. 64

Release

Disney+ launched in some countries around the world through a rollout plan, first in the United States , Canada , and the Netherlands on November 12, 2019, then in Puerto Rico , Australia , and New Zealand on November 19 of the same year.

During the first day of the service in the United States, Canada and the Netherlands, the Disney+ application was downloaded 3.2 million times, becoming the most downloaded application on the App Store : almost 89 percent of these were produced in the United States, while that 9 percent were in Canada and 2 in the Netherlands. On that same day, various users reported technical failures through Twitter with the label#DisneyPlusFail: According to these, there were problems subscribing or connecting to the service, which would be the result of the large volume of traffic received by the server at the same time. Other problems reported were playback buttons that did not appear when selecting a certain movie or episode of a series, as well as existing content in the catalog that did not appear when searching in the corresponding bar. Despite these irregularities, by the end of November 12, the service had accumulated more than 10 million subscribers and 10 million hours of content had been consumed; in contrast, 6 million hours of content were consumed on Netflix on that day .

Four months later, on March 24, 2020, it was released in the United Kingdom , Spain , and Western Europe , then in Japan on June 11 , 2020 , on September 15, 2020, in Belgium , the Nordics , Luxembourg , and Portugal and on November 17, 2020 it was launched in Latin America and the Caribbean (excepting Cuba and the United States Virgin Islands ).

On February 23, 2021 it was released in Singapore , 68 on June 1, 2021 it was released in Malaysia 2 and on June 30, 2021 it was released in Thailand . 69 Then on November 12, 2021 they were released in South Korea , Macao and Taiwan and on November 16, 2021 it was released in Hong Kong .

On May 18, 2022, it was launched in South Africa , while on June 8, 2022, the launch was expanded across the Middle East and North Africa (excepting Mauritania , Syria and Sudan ) and on June 14, 2022 in Europe Eastern and Turkey , followed by Israel , which was released on June 16, 2022. In the Philippines it was released on November 17, 2022.

Reception

Since its launch in the first available countries, Disney+ has been positively received by viewers, reporting approximately 60.5 million subscribers in mid-August 2020.

All the criticism that the platform has received is due to technical problems, with several users reporting that they were unable to connect to the service on its first day of availability. 120 In some cases some passwords and accounts had to be created anew.

After a few weeks of its launch, the platform has been criticized for its limited catalog and decision to keep its content in a familiar tone, as well as the subsequent change of series for not fitting the appropriate themes for the studio’s values. 121 In 2019 Disney+ was one of the most searched topics on Google . 122