Matthew Will
Editor-in-Chief
Since announced in November of 2018, Disney+ has been one of the highest anticipated moments in streaming history. On Tuesday, Nov. 12, Disney released the streaming service to an eager audience.
The service starts off at $6.99 a month and gives access to Disney’s huge selection of Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars and National Geographic series and movies. Individuals that have some sort of Verizon Unlimited plan get a year of Disney+ plus for free.
A significant selling point for Disney+ is their bundle deal. Since Disney owns so many services, they have made a bundle for Disney+ that includes Hulu (with commercials) and ESPNPlus, all for $12.99. For individuals looking to cut cable, this deal is a significant step down in costs from cable.
One of the highest points of the new service is offering Marvel and Star Wars fans access nearly every movie in the collection. For Marvel fans, you can enjoy 19 of the 20 base storyline movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. As for Star Wars fanatics, the original trilogy (episodes 4-6), the prequel trilogy (episodes 1-3) and some of the most recent installments including The Force Awakens (episode seven), Rouge One and Solo are all included with the service.
While there are not many, weekly released episodes bring a new look to streaming service. Currently, the only show abiding to this is The Mandalorian, a show revolving around the life of a bounty hunter from the Star Wars franchise. A new episode releases every Friday for this show, with this weekly release model expected to be used by the Marvel show, Loki.
Highlighting the Disney portion of the service are some of the favorite series of our generation’s childhoods including Hannah Montana, Kim Possible and the Suite Life shows.
Less than 24 hours after beginning the service, Disney announced they had 10 million subscribers set up already. According to an article from cnet.com posted on Wednesday, Nov. 13, Disney would not specify how many of these accounts were made from Verizon Unlimited accounts.
To compare Disney+ to Hulu and Netflix, Hulu currently has 28 million subscribers after its 10 years in the business. Netflix has over 150 million subscribers in its 12+ years as a subscriptions service (this does not include the DVD subscriptions that began in 1998).
Disney+ is now and will be a must-have service. The nostalgic feelings pour in while scrolling through the hundreds of availabilities on the service. If you have Verizon Unlimited and haven’t started your subscription yet; what are you waiting for? If you are not, at $6.99 a month, it is money well spent.