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Disney+ Launches New Era of Streaming, With a Few Hiccups
November 18, 2019
The much-anticipated Disney+ streaming service officially launched on Tuesday in the United States, Canada and the Netherlands. In the first 24 hours, the app was downloaded 3.2 million times. Demand for the new over-the-top streaming service prompted the company to announced that it had exceeded its highest expectations -- but with problematic results.Many users were unable to launch the app on its huge opening
day. Forty-two percent of users had problems just logging in, while 57 percent
reported video streaming issues, according to Internet traffic monitoring site Downdetector.Those who had problems connecting took to social media to complain,
and a common refrain was that even when they could log on and start
streaming, the service crashed repeatedly. However, there was some
levity as well.Much of this is par for the course when it comes to streaming
services, which all too quickly can overwhelm a provider's ability to
deliver content. HBO Go and HBO Now, the streaming services of pay-TV
giant HBO, experienced crashes during the season premieres and season
finales of True Detective and Game of Thrones -- and in those cases it was a single program that triggered a temporary outage."Some teething problems aren't unexpected," said
Dan Cryan, principal analyst at MTM London."They had a fantastic number of subscribers, and the problems that
users experienced are unlikely to be a long-term issue unless it
persists," he told TechNewsWorld.However, it isn't clear -- problems aside -- how many of those
customers will remain for the long run."The numbers are meaningless at this point," suggested Colin Dixon, principal analyst at
nScreen Media."There were a number of offers that essentially created an
artificially high spike of users," he told TechNewsWorld.
The arrival of Disney+ could be the biggest game changer in the OTT
space, simply because of the sheer volume of content it offers.
Disney+ is home to content from Walt Disney Studios, 20th Century Fox,
Marvel Studios, Pixar and Lucasfilm. It is the home for Star Wars, Marvel superheroes and The Simpsons.Out of the gate, subscribers already gained access to more than 500
movies and 7,500 TV episodes -- including new exclusive programming -- and
that number will increase over the next few years. This breadth of
content could give the Mouse House a major advantage over rival
streaming services that have entered the market in recent years, and
could put Disney+ toe-to-toe with industry giant Netflix.At present Disney+ is available for US$7 a month in the United States, or
$70 a year, which breaks down to $5.83 a month. That is less than...