Disney+

Disney+ (pronounced Disney Plus) is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned and operated by the Media and Entertainment Distribution division of The Walt Disney Company. The service primarily distributes films and television series produced by The Walt Disney Studios and Walt Disney Television, with dedicated content hubs for Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, National Geographic and the Star brand for select international markets outside the United States. Original films and television series are also distributed on Disney+. In the United States, Disney+ sits alongside Hulu and ESPN+ as Disney’s three primary streaming platforms for the US market.

Disney+ relies on technology developed by Disney Streaming Services, which was originally established as BAMTech in 2015 when it was spun off from MLB Advanced Media (MLBAM). Disney increased its ownership share of BAMTech to a controlling stake in 2017, and subsequently transferred ownership to DTCI as part of a corporate restructuring in anticipation of Disney’s acquisition of 21st Century Fox. With BAMTech helping to launch ESPN+ in early 2018, and Disney’s streaming distribution deal with Netflix ending in 2019, Disney took the opportunity to use technologies being developed for ESPN+ to establish a Disney-branded streaming service that would feature its content. Production of films and television shows for exclusive release on the platform began in late 2017.

Disney+ was launched on November 12, 2019, in the United States, Canada, and the Netherlands, and expanded to Australia, New Zealand, and Puerto Rico a week later. It became available in select European countries in March 2020 and in India in April through Star India’s Hotstar streaming service, which was rebranded as Disney+ Hotstar. Additional European countries received the service in September 2020, with the service expanding to Latin America in November 2020. Upon launch, it was met with positive reception of its content library, but was criticized for technical problems. Alterations made to films and television shows also attracted media attention. Ten million users had subscribed to Disney+ by the end of its first day of operation. The service had 100 million subscribers as of March 9, 2021.

History

In late 2015, Disney launched a streaming service in the United Kingdom called DisneyLife to test the streaming market. It was eventually replaced by Disney+ on March 24, 2020.

In August 2016, Disney acquired a minority stake in BAMTech (a spin-off of MLB Advanced Media’s streaming technology business) for $1 billion, with an option to acquire a majority stake in the future. Following the purchase, ESPN announced plans for an “exploratory project” based on its technology (ESPN+) to supplant its existing linear television services. On August 8, 2017, Disney invoked its option to acquire a controlling stake in BAMTech for $1.58 billion, increasing its stake to 75%. Alongside the acquisition, the company also announced plans for a second, Disney-branded direct-to-consumer service drawing from its entertainment content, which would launch after the company ends its existing distribution agreement with Netflix in 2019. Not long after, Agnes Chu, story and franchise development executive at Walt Disney Imagineering, was the first executive appointed for the unit, as senior vice president of content. Chu led two projects to launch the new unit. First, Disney needed to verify exactly what content could be physically and legally made available through a streaming service right away, which meant physically reviewing all content in Disney’s vaults that had not recently undergone restoration, and reviewing “binders of pieces of paper with legal deals” to identify potential obstacles. Second, Chu met with leaders of Disney’s various content-producing divisions to start brainstorming which projects would be appropriate for release on a streaming service rather than in movie theaters. Chu later left in August 2020.

In December 2017, Disney announced its intent to acquire key entertainment assets from 21st Century Fox. Intended to bolster Disney’s content portfolio for its streaming products, the acquisition was completed on March 20, 2019.

In January 2018, it was reported that former Apple and Samsung executive Kevin Swint had been appointed as the senior vice president and general manager reporting to BAMTech CEO Michael Paull, who leads development. In March 2018, Disney’s top level segment division was reorganized with the formation of Disney Direct-to-Consumer and International, which then included BAMTech, which contains “all consumer-facing tech and products”. In June of the same year, longtime Disney studio marketing chief, Ricky Strauss, was named president of content and marketing, however reporting to chairman of Disney Direct-to-Consumer and International Kevin Mayer. In January 2019, Fox Television Group COO Joe Earley was named executive vice president of marketing and operations. In June 2019, Matt Brodlie was named as senior vice president of international content development. In August 2019, Luke Bradley-Jones was hired as senior vice president of direct to consumer and general manager of Disney+ for Europe and Africa.

On November 8, 2018, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced that the service would be named Disney+ and that the company was targeting a launch in late 2019. A September launch was reportedly planned, 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 the service out worldwide over the next two years, targeting Western Europe and Asia-Pacific countries by late 2019 and early 2020, and Eastern Europe and Latin America during 2020. The timing of international launches is subject to the acquisition or expiration of existing streaming rights deals for Disney content. On August 6, 2019, Iger announced that it will offer a streaming bundle of Disney+, ESPN+, and the ad-supported version of Hulu for $12.99 per month available at launch. At the D23 Expo in August 2019, Disney opened subscriptions to Disney+ at a discounted rate for three years.

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 were switched to a paid plan. Disney+ became available for pre-order in September in the United States with a 7-day free trial upon launch.

In October 2019, Disney released a three-and-a-half-hour trailer on YouTube to showcase their launch lineup. It was also reported that Disney would ban advertisements for competitor Netflix from most of its TV platforms, except ESPN.

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

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

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

On October 12, 2020, Disney announced a reorganization of their media business with a greater focus on streaming. They are planning to add more content for Disney+ and their other streaming platforms (such as Hulu) in the future.

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

In March 2021, Disney announced an increase to the streaming service’s pricing that would take place on March 26, 2021.

Content

The service is built around content from Disney’s main entertainment studios and film and television library, including Walt Disney Pictures, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar, Disneynature, Disneytoon Studios, Lucasfilm, Marvel Studios, National Geographic, and select films from 20th Century Studios, Hollywood Pictures, Searchlight Pictures, Touchstone Pictures, and Caravan Pictures. The service will operate alongside Hulu, which Disney gained a controlling stake in following the 21st Century Fox purchase. Bob Iger stated that at launch Disney+ would be focused specifically on family-oriented entertainment (and not carry any R and NC-17 or TV-MA-rated content), and that Hulu would remain oriented towards general entertainment. Hulu will also host Disney+ as an add-on service.

Content library

It is suggested that Disney+ has approximately 7,000 television episodes and 500 films, including original television series and films from Disney Channel and Freeform, and select titles from 20th Television and ABC Signature. New releases from 20th Century Studios (including Blue Sky’s Spies in Disguise) will not immediately be available on either Disney+ or Hulu, as the studio has pre-existing output deals with other premium TV/streaming providers (including HBO in the U.S. until 2022, Crave in Canada and Skyin the UK, Ireland, Italy and Germany). Captain Marvel, Dumbo (2019), and Avengers: Endgame became the first theatrically released Disney films to stream exclusively on Disney+ within the pay-cable window.

It was announced that Disney+ would add the first 30 seasons of The Simpsons to the service at launch, as the series’ new exclusive home, with season 31 being added on October 2, 2020 in the United States.

Iger said that Disney+ will eventually host the entire Disney film library, including films currently in the “Disney Vault”. However, he stated that the controversial Song of the South(1946), which has never been released on home video in its entirety in the U.S., will not be released on the service. Walt Disney Animation Studios’ 1946 film Make Mine Music is not available on the service with regards of the mature contents in All the Cats Join In and The Martins and the Coys, making it the only film in Disney animated canon not to be included at this time. The World War II-era film Victory Through Air Power also has yet to be available on the service owing to violent war imageries and Nazism. Despite being available at launch, at least four films – Home Alone, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, and Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties – were removed from the service in the U.S.

It was initially unclear whether the first six films of the Star Wars franchise would be available in the United States at the service’s launch, as TBS held streaming rights through 2024 as part of its cable rights to the franchise, but in April 2019, it was announced that the films would be available at launch along with The Force Awakens and Rogue One,with The Last Jedi added on December 26, 2019; The Rise of Skywalker added on May 4, 2020, and Solo: A Star Wars Story was added on July 10, 2020.

In the United States, most of the films from the Marvel Cinematic Universe were available at launch, with the exception of seven films: Thor: Ragnarok (added on December 5, 2019), Black Panther (added on March 4, 2020), Avengers: Infinity War (added on June 25, 2020), and Ant-Man and the Wasp (added on August 14, 2020), due to existing licensing deals with Netflix; and The Incredible Hulk, Spider-Man: Homecoming, and Spider-Man: Far From Home, which are unavailable because their distribution rights are owned by Universal Pictures (The Incredible Hulk) and Sony Pictures (Spider-Man).

Some films were modified by Disney: a post-credits scene from Toy Story 2 was edited out; nudity was eliminated from Splash by adding digital hair, blurring, and cropping certain scenes; films such as Adventures in Babysitting, Free Solo, and Hamilton are altered to remove profanities; The Adventures of Bullwhip Griffin (1967) was edited to remove racial slurs, and the short film Santa’s Workshop (1932) was edited to remove a “stereotypical black doll”. Some older content, such as films, animated shorts, and series, have a content disclaimer on the platform noting the possibility of outdated cultural depictions. Starting in October 2020, a 12-second content disclaimer informing viewers of racially insensitive scenes plays before some older Disney films – including Peter Pan, Dumbo, Swiss Family Robinson, Lady and the Tramp, The Jungle Book, Aladdin, and The Aristocats. Additionally, by January 2021, some of these films were no longer viewable on kids profiles; the titles were still available to view on regular profiles. X-Men: Days of Future Past, which contains both nudity and the word “fuck”, began airing uncensored in mid-2020. Some series are missing episodes, including Darkwing Duck, The Little Mermaid, Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, The Muppet Show, and The Simpsons, amongst other programs.

Original scripted content

The service’s initial original content goal was planned to include four to five original films and five television shows with budgets from $25–100 million. In January 2019, it was reported that Disney would spend up to $500 million in original content for the service. Original series based on Star Wars and Marvel properties have been or are being produced. Original Star Wars series include The Mandalorian, a seventh season of the animated The Clone Wars (and a spin-off series titled The Bad Batch), Obi-Wan Kenobi, Andor, Lando, The Acolyte, as well as three series spun off from The Mandalorian: The Book of Boba Fett, Rangers of the New Republic, and Ahsoka. Original Marvel series include WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Loki, an animated What If series, Ms. Marvel, Hawkeye, Moon Knight, and She-Hulk.

In January 2019, Disney+ ordered Diary of a Future President from CBS Television Studios, its first series from an outside production company.

A television series remake of the film High Fidelity was initially announced for Disney+, but in April 2019, it was announced that the project had been moved to Hulu, citing concerns from its staff that the positioning of Disney+ as a family-friendly service was at odds with their creative vision for the series. Love, Victor, a spin-off of the film Love, Simon, was similarly shifted from Disney+ to Hulu in February 2020.

In August 2019, Iger announced that 20th Century Fox films such as Home Alone, Night at the Museum, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and Cheaper by the Dozen will be “‘reimagined’ for ‘a new generation'” exclusively for Disney+ by Fox Family. Original episodic content will be released weekly, opposed to all at once with the release time to be 12:01 a.m. PT on Fridays, starting November 15, 2019.

On December 25, 2020, Soul became the first feature-length film from Pixar to be released as a Disney+ original.

Original unscripted content

Disney also plans original factual television content for the service, aiming to “find the ethos of Disney in everyday stories, inspiring hope and sparking the curiosity of audiences of all ages.” Some of these series will have ties to Disney properties, including behind-the-scenes documentary miniseries focusing on Disney studios (such as one following the production of Frozen II), the Disney-themed competition cooking competition Be Our Chef, Cinema Relics (a documentary series showcasing iconic costume and props from Disney films), Marvel’s Hero Project (a series that will showcase “inspiring kids have dedicated their lives to selfless acts of bravery and kindness”), and The Imagineering Story(a Leslie Iwerks-directed documentary series chronicling the history and work of Walt Disney Imagineering). National Geographic is also producing Magic of the Animal Kingdom (a docuseries following the animal caretakers of Disney’s Animal Kingdom and Epcot’s aquarium) and The World According to Jeff Goldblum.

Disney reached a two-year pact with the documentary studio Supper Club (Brian McGinn, David Gelb and Jason Sterman, producers of Netflix’s Chef’s Table) to produce content for the service, including the conservation-themed nature documentary series Earthkeepers, and a documentary series chronicling the cultural and societal impact of Marvel’s characters. Other factual series include Encore! (a Kristen Bell-produced series that reunites casts from high school musical productions to reprise their roles), (Re)Connect (a reality series produced by Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos’ Milojo Productions), Rogue Trip (a travel series featuring Bob Woodruff and his son Mack), and the reality competition Shop Class. On December 3, 2019, Disney+ announced the new Star Wars-based children’s game show Jedi Temple Challenge to be hosted by Ahmed Best, who voiced Jar Jar Binks in the prequel trilogy.

Premier Access

The live-action adaptation of Mulan was premiered in select countries on Disney+ Premier Access for a premium fee ($29.99) on September 4, 2020, and later was made available for free to all subscribers on December 4. A second feature film, Raya and the Last Dragon, was offered through the Premier Access model on March 5, 2021, the same day as its theatrical release, and will be made available for all users on June 4. In March 2021, Disney announced that Cruella and Black Widow would both release theatrically and through Premier Access.

Device support and service features

Disney+ is available for streaming via web browsers on PC and Mac, as well as apps on Apple iOS devices and Apple TV, Android mobile devices and Android TV, Amazon devices such as Fire TV and Fire HD, Chromecast, Chromebook, Samsung smart TVs, LG webOS TVs, Vizio SmartCast TVs, Roku devices, Sky Q, Now TV devices, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Windows 10. Content available on Disney+ is also listed in the Apple TV app.

Accessibility features include closed captioning, Descriptive Video Service, audio description, and audio navigation assistance.

Disney+ allows seven user profiles per account, with the ability to stream on four devices concurrently and unlimited downloads for offline viewing. Content is able to be streamed in resolutions up to 4K Ultra HD in Dolby Vision and HDR10, with Dolby Atmos sound on supported devices. Legacy content and Disney+ originals are available in multiple languages. Subtitles and dubbing are available in up to 16 languages. A substantial amount of content is available in Hindi, Indonesian, Malay, Tamil and Telugu languages on the Indian and Indonesian counterpart, Disney+ Hotstar.

In late May 2020, the service added the ability to switch between 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios for early Simpsons episodes, after the service received backlash for stretching those episodes to 16:9 by default at launch. Disney had done this “in order to guarantee visual quality and consistency across all 30 seasons.” To accommodate the feature, Disney Streaming Services “had to reconfigure its content-delivery engine” while ensuring the new feature would not break any existing features such as continue watching, watchlists, and auto-playing, as they did not want to treat the 4:3 versions as bonus content. The resulting changes allowed Disney to apply the existing audio, subtitle information, episode artwork, and other metadata from the episodes to both aspect ratios regardless of which is chosen by the user. Joe Rice, vice president of media product at Disney Streaming Services, added that these adjustments “opens up a number of exciting opportunities for novel ways of presenting content in the future.”

In September 2020, the service added the GroupWatch feature which allows up to seven different Disney+ accounts to link up and co-view programming with one another. Viewers are able to react to content with six different emojis, and control playback for the entire group. It is available on web browser, mobile app, smart TVs, and connected TV devices in the United States, and will expand to Europe later in 2020. The feature was previously tested in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand.

Launch

Disney+ was launched early in the Netherlands on September 12, 2019 as a free trial. It officially launched in the Netherlands, United States and Canada on November 12, 2019 just before 3:00 a.m. EST (UTC–5). Disney+ launched in Australia, New Zealand, and Puerto Rico on November 19, 2019, and launched in Austria, the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Germany, Ireland, and Switzerland on March 24, 2020. In the UK and Ireland, Disney+ replaced DisneyLife. In Spain, a linear Disney+ television channel launched alongside the streaming service. The channel is available exclusively on Movistar+, which serves as Disney+’s launch partner in the region.

In December 2019, it was announced that Canal+ would be the exclusive distributor of Disney+ in France. The launch in France was delayed from March 24 to April 7, pursuant to a request from the French government to conserve network capacity due to the COVID-19 pandemic placing additional strain on communications networks.

In February 2020, Iger announced that it planned to launch Disney+ in India on March 29, 2020 by means of its existing service Hotstar, rebranding its paid tiers as a co-branded service. Hotstar was acquired by Disney during the Fox purchase, and has been the dominant streaming service in the country. However, it was postponed due to the Indian Premier League being rescheduled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was then launched on April 3, 2020.

In April 2020, it was announced that Disney+ original content would be licensed to pay TV and streaming operator OSN, starting on April 9, in 17 countries in the Middle East and North Africa region with Disney noting that they had no current “plan to launch Disney+ as a standalone service in the region in the near future”.

The service launched in Japan on June 11, 2020 as part of Disney’s existing partnership with NTT Docomo, and succeeded the existing Disney Deluxe service in the region.Disney+ launched in Indonesia through Hotstar on September 5, 2020; Portugal, Belgium, Finland, Iceland, Luxembourg, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Greenland on September 15, 2020; and in Latin America and the Caribbean on November 17, 2020.

The service expanded to Singapore on February 23, 2021. It was announced that the service would also expand to Eastern Europe, and South Korea, and Hong Kong sometime in 2021.

Star, Disney+’s brand for general entertainment content, would launch on February 23, 2021 in Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore and is expected to be rolled out to select international markets in the future, including Japan.

On February 25, 2021, it was reported that Disney+ would launch in Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand through Hotstar within 2021.

Launch rollout timeline

Release date	Country/Territory	Release partner(s)
November 12, 2019	Canada	None
	Netherlands
	United States	Verizon
November 19, 2019	Australia	None
	New Zealand
	Puerto Rico
March 24, 2020	Austria
	Germany	Telekom
	Ireland	Sky
	Italy	Telecom Italia
	Spain	Movistar+
	Switzerland	None
	United Kingdom	Sky, O2
April 2, 2020	Channel Islands	None
	Isle of Man
April 3, 2020	India	Hotstar
April 7, 2020	France	Canal+
April 30, 2020	Monaco	None
	Wallis and Futuna	Canal+ Calédonie
	New Caledonia
	French West Indies	Canal+ Caraïbes
	French Guiana
June 11, 2020	Japan	NTT Docomo
September 5, 2020	Indonesia	Hotstar, Telkomsel
September 15, 2020	Belgium	None
	Denmark
	Finland
	Greenland
	Iceland
	Luxembourg
	Norway
	Portugal
	Sweden
October 2, 2020	Réunion	Canal+ Réunion
	Mayotte	Canal+ Mayotte
	Mauritius	Canal+ Maurice
November 17, 2020	Argentina	Cablevisión (Argentina)
	Bolivia	Visa
	Brazil	Globoplay, Bradesco, Next, Mercado Livre and Vivo
	Caribbean	Visa
	Chile
	Colombia
	Costa Rica
	Ecuador
	El Salvador
	Guatemala
	Honduras
	Mexico	Izzi Telecom and MercadoLibre
	Nicaragua	Visa
	Panama
	Paraguay
	Peru
	Uruguay
	Venezuela	None
February 23, 2021	Singapore	StarHub
2021	Eastern Europe
	Hong Kong
	Malaysia	Hotstar
	Philippines
	South Korea
	Taiwan
	Thailand	Hotstar

Reception

On November 13, 2019, a day after its launch, Disney announced that the streaming service had already signed up more than 10 million subscribers. Disney+ has been well-received, thanks to its affordable price and for the extensive Disney library. Frank Pallotta of CNN stated that “the company has repackaged its trove of beloved content for the service makes it a worthy companion to the other services in the marketplace. Nick Pino of TechRadar stated, “If Disney keeps it updated with new content, Disney+ could rival Netflix sooner rather than later.”

Upon launch, Disney+ experienced significant technical difficulties. Users complained about receiving error messages that the service was down and that they were “unable to connect”, which were irritating because many of them had paid for the service months in advance. In some instances, passwords needed to be reset to enable access.

One other negative aspect with the launch of the service was the presentation of the non-HD episodes of The Simpsons. Namely, that instead of presenting them in their original aspect ratio, they were either cropped to fit 16:9 widescreen televisions or awkwardly stretched out to that aspect ratio. FXX’s now-defunct “Simpsons World” streaming service was similarly criticized when it launched. In response, Disney stated they would make the ability to watch the episodes of the first 19 seasons and some from season 20 in either the 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratio in early 2020. The feature was made available on May 28, 2020.

Some have noted that episodes of The Simpsons, X-Men, DuckTales, Phineas and Ferb, Kim Possible, and The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes are presented almost entirely out of order, while some series are missing episodes. Others have questioned why an extensive catalog of Disney-owned material is missing from the platform, including Marvel content, Disney Junior titles, various Muppets media, and Star Wars spin-offs. On June 26, 2020, the 2017 DuckTales series had its episodes arranged in the proper order while co-creator of Phineas and Ferb, Jeff “Swampy” Marsh, has stated that they are working on correcting the order of his series.

Disney+ was the top trending Google search term in 2019 in the US. In February 2020, Disney reported that Disney+ had 26.5 million subscribers by the end of 2019, and 28.6 million by February 3, 2020. By April 2020, Disney+ had 50 million paid subscribers, with approximately 8 million of those coming from India. The service had 54.5 million subscribers by May 4, 57.5 million subscribers by the end of June, 60.5 million subscribers by August 4, 73.7 million subscribers by September 30, and 86.8 million subscribers as of December 2. In February 2021, Disney reported that Disney+ had 94.9 million subscribers as of January 2, 2021. On March 9, 2021, Disney reported that the service had surpassed 100 million paid subscribers but did not say when it had hit the milestone. The company clarified that it would now only be providing subscriber number updates when certain milestones are reached, as opposed to releasing exact numbers each quarter.

In 2020, Apple Inc. named Disney+ the Apple TV App of the Year. It was the second and third most-downloaded free app of the year globally on the iPad and iPhone, respectively. It was also voted the best app of 2020 by Google Play users.