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Disney+ Streaming Service To Launch In November, Priced At $6.99 Monthly (variety.com)
Disney has announced that its highly anticipated new streaming service, Disney+, will launch in the U.S. on November 12 with a price of $6.99 per month. Variety has more details: The subscription VOD service represents Disney's next major foray into the video-streaming wars. By pricing it well below Netflix, the Mouse House is betting it can rapidly drive up Disney+ customer base with a melange of content that appeals to multiple demographics, including movies and TV shows from its Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar and Disney brands.
At launch, Disney+ will include 7,500 episodes, including from 25 original series; 400 library movie titles; and 100 recent theatrical films releases, according to Agnes Chu, senior VP of content, Disney+. That includes exclusive rights to all 30 seasons of "The Simpsons," which Disney obtained through the acquisition of 21st Century Fox. In year five of Disney+, the company expects to have an annual production slate of some 50 originals, Chu said. Disney+ will be an ad-free service, supported solely by subscription fees. It's going to have a wide platform footprint, spanning game consoles, smart TVs and connected streaming devices, including Roku and PlayStation 4, said Michael Paull, president of Disney Streaming Services (formerly BAMTech). "After Disney+'s initial North American launch in the fourth quarter of 2019, the service will roll out to Europe, Latin America and Asia as Disney's international rights return to the company from licensees," the report adds. Kevin Mayer, chairman of Disney's Direct-to-Customer and International business segment, also said that the company will "likely" offer a discounted bundle combining Disney+, ESPN+, and Hulu.
All of Disney+'s content will be available to download for offline viewing and will be available in 4K. Some of the content subscribers will have access to includes all of the Star Wars films, 250 hours of NatGeo content, and hundreds of episodes from Disney Channel shows as well as a brand-new "Phineas and Ferb" movie.
At launch, Disney+ will include 7,500 episodes, including from 25 original series; 400 library movie titles; and 100 recent theatrical films releases, according to Agnes Chu, senior VP of content, Disney+. That includes exclusive rights to all 30 seasons of "The Simpsons," which Disney obtained through the acquisition of 21st Century Fox. In year five of Disney+, the company expects to have an annual production slate of some 50 originals, Chu said. Disney+ will be an ad-free service, supported solely by subscription fees. It's going to have a wide platform footprint, spanning game consoles, smart TVs and connected streaming devices, including Roku and PlayStation 4, said Michael Paull, president of Disney Streaming Services (formerly BAMTech). "After Disney+'s initial North American launch in the fourth quarter of 2019, the service will roll out to Europe, Latin America and Asia as Disney's international rights return to the company from licensees," the report adds. Kevin Mayer, chairman of Disney's Direct-to-Customer and International business segment, also said that the company will "likely" offer a discounted bundle combining Disney+, ESPN+, and Hulu.
All of Disney+'s content will be available to download for offline viewing and will be available in 4K. Some of the content subscribers will have access to includes all of the Star Wars films, 250 hours of NatGeo content, and hundreds of episodes from Disney Channel shows as well as a brand-new "Phineas and Ferb" movie.
That's all anyone cares about.
by Christmas $14.99 muhahahaah. Seriously, that seems like a well though out almost reasonable price.
I had exactly the same thought, how much would it go up later...
But Disney is being super smart here, because they know even though they have a lot of good stuff, they will always be a secondary subscription to something like Netflix. So they priced it just low enough that it's practical to have both.
Now the real question is, if you want 4K content is that an extra fee on that base... I say yes.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
"Some of the content subscribers will have access to includes all of the Star Wars films" - well this will definitely entice some folks.
It won't have the original trilogy yet. Turner holds the streaming rights until 2024.
Sorry, I have enough subscription services right now and the whole point of cancelling cable was to stop paying tons of money per month so I'll pass, as will everyone else who's not rich or unbelievably irresponsible with their money. Dead on arrival.
There are at least two live action Star Wars shows in the hopper...
I agree, that is a lot of Star Wars (and Marvel) content for a not very large price.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
make Disney premium again and drop my bill $6/mo and make it an choice.
Even everyone's favorite, the Star Wars Holiday Special?
Nope, not even close. Disney, although is doesn't know it yet, has introduced the great streaming churn. People will swap streaming services upon a regular basis, as none of them will end up with sufficient content, ignoring all the filler crap no one watches, people will not pay for multiple services, they will simply swap on a quarterly or half yearly basis, depending upon how many they want to go with.
Churning streaming services will become the norm and they will all go hungry trying to eat each others lunch. They will end up trying all sorts of manipulative corporate shit to lock people in to block churning.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
right here...
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
Forget Star Wars. The Simpsons alone will draw people in numbers.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Yet another media streaming service, fragmenting the media market and forcing people on limited budgets to choose, or more often a lot of people simply picking one and then obtaining their other media through sometimes less than legal channels.
People will swap streaming services upon a regular basis, as none of them will end up with sufficient content
I agree with this statement, for a lot of services. HBO is exactly that way for me, it has some shows I like, but not enough to keep me around for more than a few months at a time...
Netflix I would argue, now has enough content existing and being developed that they can accelerate out of that orbit of churn, to full time streaming for most people.
Disney though, might have enough here to e a full-time subscribe. As mentioned elsewhere, they will have a LOT of Star Wars content including new content (the auxiliary stuff like the TV series have been much better than the movies in recent years). Then you have all the Marvel stuff. And all the Pixar stuff. And all the Disney cartoons and movies... that's a lot of mostly pretty good stuff (well OK Disney TV probably has a lot of filler but still). If you have kids (which notoriously like to watch things repeatedly) it's an instant must-have service. Even without kids if you are into one of the vectors they offer deep enough (Marvel/Star Wars) it's worthwhile and there's probably enough new stuff ongoing you'll keep it for a year...
As an aside, Amazon lucks into yearly video service users because so many people have prime. If they ever broke that charge for video out I think they'd see a huge decline in year long subscribers.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
In Australia, "STAN" (Local Netflix clone with a lot of reality TV junk, but a pretty great movie selection), got the rights to the disney catalogue, and honestly, it kept me entertained for all of about 2 weeks aand then nothing. I've seen all the marvel and star wars films, multiple times. The only Marvel TV shows worth watching belong to Netflix and got murdered by corporate suits. And theres a few decent non-genre films. But beyond that, there just isn't enough content to make a streaming service out of.
Excuse the Unicode crap in my posts. That's an apostrophe, and slashdot is busted.
I already have copies at home of all three Star Wars movies, so I have no need for this subscription.
I recognize a bait when I see one, but I'll bite. I assume you refer to Episodes IV through VI?
...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
From TFA:
After the initial North American launch in the fourth quarter of 2019, the service will roll out to Western Europe and in Asia-Pacific regions starting in Q4 and into early 2020 and in Eastern Europe and Latin America starting at the end of 2020.
The European Commission will most likely slam them with a heavy fine if they do this. The European Union is a single entity economically speaking, and treating Western Europe and Eastern Europe separately is a huge no-no.
Valve is under pressure right now for allowing game price geotagging in the EU, together with other major game publishers. https://win.gg/news/977
As a person living in Eastern Europe (and a Star Wars fan), I am directly interested in how is this going to unfold.
...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
First taste is cheap, people. Just like everyone else, they'll let you get all settled in, then start jacking up the price. 'Cord cutters', indeed.
It won't be available in my region anyway, and even if it was I doubt my smart TV or Kodi box will support it, so until they fix that it'll be the Pirate Bay for me.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
The $6.99 price probably won't even stand 12 months.
Not even sure $9.99 will hold long. Their behavior in the past already shows they'd rather sell to 20% of the market at a much higher price.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
Disney knows it can rely on kids to keep parents subscribed for at least 10 years.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
People will swap streaming services upon a regular basis, as none of them will end up with sufficient content, ignoring all the filler crap no one watches, people will not pay for multiple services, they will simply swap on a quarterly or half yearly basis, depending upon how many they want to go with.
You clearly underestimate both my laziness and my capacity to forget what I pay for things collectively.
I'm more a fan of watching the Star Wars movies in Machete order (IV, V, II, III, VI). They show two of the episodes with "better CGI" as a flashback between episodes driven by practical effects, while not letting any movies spoil twists of other movies. Then The Phantom Menace (or The Phantom Edit if the "pet dog" annoys you) can serve as a prequel to the whole thing, a side story in the vein of The Clone Wars.
Disney+ and chill?
"Why don't you have a seat over there."
If, instead of every studio baking it's own platform with it's own fees and structure they all banded together, removed their content from Netflix as a block and had a unified platform for steaming all content (Warner, Disney, Universal, Paramount, Sony) they would put Netflix out of business within a few years. After that break it back up and do whatever, what they are doing now seems to shortsighted.
If they don't have the Christmas Special, I'm out.
"Evil will always triumph over good, because good is dumb." - Dark Helmet (Spaceballs)