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This post has been updated with new branding information, and other important changes are noted in the text.
Disney+ (pronounced Disney Plus) launched in November 2019. This one of the newest video streaming services in the United States. The “plus” part of Disney Plus denotes that this streaming service isn’t just for Disney fans. The site is also contributed to by Marvel Studios, National Geographic, Pixar, and the Star Wars franchise of Lucasfilm. All of which are properties of the Walt Disney Company.
The Walt Disney Company owns a lot of media businesses, including rival streaming service, Hulu. The Company distinguishes the Disney+ brand by sticking to the rule of only showing family-friendly content and only sourcing its original content from its four famous contributors.
So, Disney+ isn’t for everyone. Disney realizes this and has put together a bundle to please all tastes. This includes subscriptions to Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN Plus, which is another property of the Walt Disney Company. The package costs about $5 less than subscribing to all three streaming services individually.
Disney+ overview
Disney is famous for its children’s entertainment and is headlined by Walt’s best friend Mickey Mouse. Pixar is known for its stunning graphics and slightly edgy humor. The blend of Disney’s fame and Pixar’s technical brilliance has produced a series of Hollywood animated hits, which are the bedrock of the Disney+ library. This year’s big draws are the live-action Hamilton, based on the smash-hit Broadway musical, and the animated Frozen 2.
Disney also contributes clean-cut original series for teens, similar to its Disney Channel content. The environment is a hot topic for the youth market right now and the streaming service hopes to capture that enthusiasm with its National Geographic content.
The older members of the family – from late teens to adults — will be entertained by the Marvel movies and series spun out from the Marvel Cinematic Universe characters. Marvel has an immense back-catalog of comic book characters, many of whom had just a short life in print, but are ripe for revival, thanks to the high-quality writing talent that Marvel Studios can afford now it is a part of Disney.
There is one drawback with the Disney strategy, however, much of the Marvel output that would appeal to older audiences is banned because of the streaming service’s family-friendly rule. Deadpool is one of the Marvel characters that will never appear on Disney+. Other blockbusters from Marvel are caught up in broadcast agreements with co-producers. The Incredible Hulk is in this situation thanks to a co-production deal with Universal Studios and Sony owns the broadcast rights to the Spider-Man movies.
Disney’s recent acquisition of 20th Century Fox Television, the distributor for Fox Networks, enabled Disney+ to add The Simpsons to its library.
There is very little in the Disney+ library to interest late-teen girls or women and adult men who are too old for Star Wars movies or superheroes probably won’t be drawn to Disney+.
Aware of the excitement over the forthcoming appearance of Frozen 2, Disney+ has ended its free trial offer. This shows that the directors of the streaming service are very confident that they have underpriced their service and that the public doesn’t need any other incentives to sign up for a subscription. This is an unusual strategy because well-established rivals Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon Prime Video all offer a 30-day free trial and new streaming sensation HBO Max is available for a seven-day free trial.
Disney+ content
When a new TV show becomes available, it is only usually released one episode per week. This is unusual because it mimics the broadcasting traditions of live TV stations but the Disney+ system is an on-demand video streaming service.
Original shows
All of the original content of Disney+ are TV series. The Walt Disney Company still wants to release all of its movie output in cinemas first. Many of the TV shows created for Disney+ are spin-offs from movies. Most notably, The Mandalorian is a brand new plot developed from a nation of bounty hunters that appeared in the Star Wars franchise a few times. The hero of this TV series is sent to retrieve a baby Yoda, called The Child – a variation on another famous Star Wars character.
Some of the original series on Disney+ are:
- Artemis Fowl
- Forky Asks a Question
- The World According to Jeff Goldblum
- High School Musical: The Musical: The Series
- The Mandalorian
New series set for future release include:
- Muppets Now
- The Falcon and The Winter Soldier
- Wandavision
Some old familiar TV shows are also featured on Disney+. These include the recently acquired second showing rights to The Simpson.
Movies
Disney/Pixar and Marvel Studios have built up an impressive catalog of blockbuster movies over the past decade. As explained earlier, not all of these can be shown on Disney+. Here are some of the movies currently showing on Disney+ and some others that are set to be released on the platform soon.
- Iron Man
- The Lion King
- Avengers: Endgame
- Avatar
- Frozen and Frozen 2
- Toy Story and Toy Story 2, 3, and 4
- Aladdin
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars
- Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
- Moana
Disney+ UX
Each Disney+ member gets access to a tailored home page at the disneyplus.com website. There is also an account page for the member and an account settings page. The owner of the account can create individual profiles for access by other family members and set what each profile is allowed to see. However, remember, Disney+ only hosts family-friendly content.
Simultaneous streams
Each account is allowed to connect four devices simultaneously. The app for the service can be installed on a lot more devices, but can only be active on four devices at once.
Profiles
Each profile is represented by an avatar. The person creating the profile can select a different icon for each profile from a library. When any user logs into the Disney+ screen, a profile selection screen appears first.
Each account can host seven profiles. Each profile can be kept secure with a passcode, but the owner of the account has the ability to create or delete any profile. A Kid’s Mode option in the settings of each profile automatically restricts the content that will be shown in the home screen for that profile to videos that are appropriate for children. This setting filters out PG13 and PG videos, so you wouldn’t apply it to the profile of a teenager.
Video categories
Videos on the home page are grouped in categories. The exact content will be different from profile to profile on an account because it adapts according to the profile owner’s viewing history. Each home page for a profile also includes a watchlist facility to enable the user to organize viewing and recall interesting videos. The user is also able to filter the videos offered on the screen by studio and there is also a search facility.
When the user hovers over the icon for a video, that icon gets a little larger than its neighbors and a headline picture appears for that video at the top of the home page.
Details screen
Clicking on a video icon gets to the details screen for that content. This shows an overview of the video, it’s release year, streaming quality, video category, and censor rating. Tabs in the details screen give more information and a cast list. Another tab lists similar videos.
Video downloads
There is no limit on the number of videos each user can download, nor a limit on the number of times each video can be downloaded or accessed and there is no limit on the length of time each video can be stored for. There is a limit on the number of devices per account that are allowed to receive video downloads from the Disney+ system, which is ten.
Disney+ quality
Most of the videos available on Disney+ are transmitted in HD. However, older videos will be of lower quality. The best videos on the system, especially the original content, is streamed in 4K Ultra HD (4K HDR) video playback in Dolby Vision and HDR10. Sound on newer productions is recorded in Dolby Digital 5.1, with some new releases using the Dolby Atmos system. The screen density is 10i80p for most videos.
Disney+ platforms
Access to the Disney+ system requires an internet connection. However, it can be processed by more devices than just an internet-connected computer.
Smart TVs
- Samsung smart TV
- LG Smart TV
- Vizio smart TV
Streaming devices
- Roku
- Apple TV
- Android TV box
- Amazon Fire TV Stick
- Amazon Fire TV Cube
Computers and mobile devices
- Web browser
- Google Chromecast
- Mobile TV app for iOS (iPhones and iPads)
- Mobile TV app for Android devices and Kindle tablets
Game consoles
- Xbox One
- PlayStation 4
Disney+ price
Disney+ doesn’t have a free trial and it only has one plan, which costs $6.99 per month. The plan can be paid yearly, which works out at $5.83 per month when paid yearly. However, the whole year’s subscription fee has to be paid in advance.
A Disney bundle of Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ (ESPN Plus) costs $12.99 per month.
Disney+ reviews from customers
As Disney+ has only been operating since November last year, it hasn’t found its way into the stats USA’s main recorder of customer approval, the American Customer Satisfaction Index. However, as Disney+ cut its free trial, it must have already received some very positive feedback from customers in its own customer satisfaction research.
