During the company’s investor day, The Walt Disney Company released a wealth of information regarding its upcoming Disney+ streaming service.
Most notable of which is the service is due to go live in the US on November 12 and will be priced at just $6.99 per month.
The price is significant as Disney is promising access to a lot of content and some of which is extremely high profile, such as the Marvel and Star Wars franchises, The Simpsons, and much more.
This is in addition to exclusive content that’s scheduled to become available after the service launches. For example, Disney says post-launch it will release “more than 25 original series and 10 original films, documentaries, and specials” through Disney+.
All of which will arrive within the service’s first year.
The launch date in the US is expected to only be the start of things to come with Disney+ due to “rapidly expand globally” with Disney expecting the rollout to be largely compete within the first two years.
As well as wide regional support, Disney is also banking on wide device support as the service is now confirmed to launch on connected TVs, gaming consoles, streaming media players, tablets and smartphones.
In fact, prior to the announcing of the pricing, Disney providing an in-depth look at the interface and the ‘Disney+ experience’ via a first-look at the apps that are set to become available on smart TVs and on mobile.
In terms of the latter, Disney is pushing for a robust mobile experience and was particularly keen to highlight how not only will it offer the option to download content for offline viewing, but also make that content available as a download on a permanent basis – for as long as an active subscription remains in effect.
Before today Disney had suggested it was taking its time to release the service as it wanted to do so in the best possible way. Following today’s announcements, the best way now seems confirmed as a highly aggressive approach to market.
With the degree of content on offer, and at the price now confirmed, it is clear Disney+ is looking to move very quickly to establish itself as a leader within the streaming market.
In some respects, this is not that surprising as any new service now launching will be already considered late to the mix, and arriving at a time when some consumers are already feeling the pressure from subscription fatigue.
However, Disney does have content on its side. It did so to begin with and the pool it can draw from grew significantly following the completion of its Fox deal.
If the content available through Disney+ alone is not quite enough, then the company also made it clear that it plans to bundle Disney+ in with both Hulu and ESPN+ at a further discounted price.
No firm details were provided on what the bundle will be priced at, but considering the low cost of the three streaming services already, consumers can likely expect a very reasonably-priced combined product, considering the amount of content that will be on offer.