Disney Plus (+): A Streaming Service to Rival Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu

A couple of years ago, Disney announced its upcoming plans of creating its own streaming service. And just last week, we were finally updated with the news of its launch date and initial pricing. Compared to the plan prices of Netflix’s that starts at $8.00, we can safely say that it’s a little less expensive at $6.99 per month.

Let us not forget, Netflix is planning on raising their current prices this coming May for a dollar or two, so that would mean it’s going to be a lot cheaper the time Disney+ is launched this coming November 12.

The problem now is that Disney uses Netflix’s pricing as their own benchmark. That being said, expect a significant increase to their subscription fee within its first year to financially compete with their biggest rival. Especially when their estimated annual licensing fees amounts up to $2 billion.

That is a pretty high price to cover if they won’t be able to license their own movies to other networks or other streaming platforms. It is estimated that in order for Disney break even, they’ll need at least 32 million subscribers.

Even with millions of fan’s undying loyalty to each and every franchise that was released under Disney, it’s still an ambitious feat. Give it a year or two and maybe, just maybe it might get the number of subscribers needed and be as successful as Netflix, or even better.

What Movies and TV Series Should You Expect?

Expect over 7,000 TV episodes and around 500 movies that will be available within the first year of its launch. Of course, expect a lot of Star Wars movies and Marvel movies to be included. Aside from these movie franchises, you can also get to enjoy Pixar movies and National Geographic documentaries. Added on their list of content would also include classic films that were kept in their so-called ‘Disney Vault’. As stated by Disney CEO Robert ‘Bob’ Iger,

“The movies that you speak of that traditionally have been kept in a ‘vault’ and brought out basically every few years will be on the service”

Being a Disney property, it should also be safe to assume that most, if not all movies and TV series that will be included on this platform would represent only family-friendly content.

In addition to the ‘Disney Vault’, the company also stated that they won’t be too restrictive in adding new content, which was a question that most have asked of them. The End Game and the upcoming Star Wars show The Mandalorian is said to be available within the first year of the streaming service.

Alongside these new upcoming movies and shows, it was also said that a new original TV show based on the characters Falcon and Bucky Barnes (Winter Soldier) is also coming to Disney+. Other TV shows include Loki and a paired-up team of The Scarlet Witch and Vision.

All these shows were based on the characters from the highly acclaimed Marvel movie franchise. What’s interesting is that the original actors and actresses from the franchise were said to reprise their roles in these upcoming TV shows. If you missed these guys after the ‘Snap’ from Thanos, then you can just watch them do their own thing on their own TV shows, but only on Disney+.

Adding more to the list, you can get a glimpse of Jeff Goldblum on NatGeo’s The World According to Jeff Goldblum, Marvel’s What If, and behind the scenes from your selected favorite Disney movies.

Questions Unanswered by Disney Plus

There are still a lot of important questions that Disney can’t and won’t answer at the moment. Like how would their original TV series be released on their platform. HBO usually releases their series once a week, while Netflix usually releases them all at once. Would the platform become another HBO type of service or more of a Netflix type?

Another issue would be the pricing of $6.99 a month. How long would the initial price would stay as is. It’s a little worrisome, considering that they’re aiming for a big chunk of money to break even with their licensing fees. That includes the issues involving on how many can stream on Disney+ simultaneously.

Finally, the issue on the availability of highly renowned titles that were excluded on their platforms. Currently, there will be around 14-16 Marvel movies within the first year. If we do a little math here, there will be around 6-8 Marvel movies that won’t be in their own streaming platform.  

So that leads us to the question on which movies were missing. Now looking at how big the Disney universe is, what about the other TV shows and other movies from different franchise? Will there be episodes or certain movies that won’t be included as well? Seeing that the launch date is still several months away, we can only hope that they give us more details these coming days.