Disney+ facts for kids
Disney+ homepage in November 2019
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Type of site
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OTT video streaming platform |
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Area served |
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Owner | The Walt Disney Company |
President | Ricky Strauss (content and marketing) |
Key people | |
Parent | Walt Disney Direct-to-Consumer & International |
Users | 10 million (as of November 13, 2019[update]) |
Launched | November 12, 2019 |
Disney+ (pronounced Disney Plus) is an American subscription video on-demand streaming service owned and operated by the Direct-to-Consumer & International (DTCI) division of The Walt Disney Company.
The service primarily distributes films and television series produced by The Walt Disney Studios and Walt Disney Television, with the service advertising content from Disney's Marvel, National Geographic, Pixar, and Star Wars brands in particular.
Original films and television series are also distributed on Disney+, with ten films and seven series having been produced for the platform as of November 2019[update].
Disney+ debuted on November 12, 2019, in the United States, Canada, and the Netherlands. The service was expanded to Australia, New Zealand, and Puerto Rico a week later, and will be expanded to select European countries in March 2020. Further expansions are planned for Europe and Latin America in late 2020 through 2021, as Disney's existing international streaming distribution deals with competing services expire.
Contents
Content
The service is built around content from Disney's main entertainment studios, including Walt Disney Pictures, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar, Lucasfilm, Marvel Studios, National Geographic, and select films from 20th Century Studios, Hollywood Pictures, Searchlight Pictures, and Touchstone Pictures. The service will operate alongside Hulu, which Disney gained a controlling stake in following the 21st Century Fox purchase. Bob Iger stated that Disney+ would be focused specifically on family-oriented entertainment (and not carry any R or TV-MA-rated content), and that Hulu would remain oriented towards general entertainment. Hulu will also host Disney+ as an add-on service.
Content library
It is expected that Disney+ will have approximately 7,000 television episodes and 500 films, including content from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, 20th Century Studios, and National Geographic, as well as original television series and films from Disney Channel and Freeform, and select titles from 20th Century Fox Television and ABC Studios.
Captain Marvel, Dumbo (2019), and Avengers: Endgame became the first theatrically-released Disney films to stream exclusively on Disney+. Iger said that Disney+ will eventually host the entire Disney film library, including films currently in the "Disney Vault".
On April 11, 2019, it was announced that the Star Wars films would be available at launch along with The Force Awakens and Rogue One, with The Last Jedi added on December 26, 2019, and Solo and The Rise of Skywalker will be available within its first year of operation. The rights to The Force Awakens (among various other Disney films) are owned by the premium television network Starz (as they have previously been the first-run pay-TV provider for Walt Disney Studios' releases between 1994 and 2015).
In the United States, most of the films from the Marvel Cinematic Universe were available at launch.
Original scripted content
Original series based on Marvel properties and Star Wars are being produced, with the former including eight new Marvel Cinematic Universe TV series: The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, WandaVision, Loki, an animated What If series, Hawkeye, Ms. Marvel, Moon Knight, and She-Hulk. The latter includes The Mandalorian, a television series that is set between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens, a currently untitled spin-off series focused on Cassian Andor from Rogue One, a seventh season of the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and Kenobi starring Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi, reprising his role from the prequel trilogy. The service's initial original content goal was planned to include four to five original films and five television shows with budgets from $25–100 million. In January 2019, it was reported that Disney will spend up to $500 million in original content for the service. The Mandalorian alone is expected to cost $100 million, across two seasons of eight episodes each.
Original unscripted content
Disney also plans original factual television content for the service, aiming to "find the ethos of Disney in everyday stories, inspiring hope and sparking the curiosity of audiences of all ages." Some of these series will have ties to Disney properties, including behind-the-scenes documentary miniseries focusing on Disney studios (such as one following the production of Frozen II), the Disney-themed competition cooking competition Be Our Chef, Cinema Relics (a documentary series showcasing iconic costume and props from Disney films), Marvel's Hero Project (a series that will showcase "inspiring kids [that] have dedicated their lives to selfless acts of bravery and kindness"), and The Imagineering Story (a Leslie Iwerks-directed documentary series chronicling the history and work of Walt Disney Imagineering). National Geographic is also producing Magic of the Animal Kingdom (a docuseries following the animal caretakers of Disney's Animal Kingdom and Epcot's aquarium) and The World According to Jeff Goldblum.
Device support and service features
Disney+ is available for streaming via web browsers on PCs, as well as apps on Apple iOS devices and Apple TV, Android mobile devices and Android TV, Amazon devices such as Fire TV and Fire HD, Chromecast, Chromebook, Samsung smart TVs, LG smart TVs, Roku devices, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows 10. Content available on Disney+ is also listed in the Apple TV app.
Accessibility features include closed captioning, Descriptive Video Service, audio description, and audio navigation assistance.
Disney+ allows seven user profiles per account, with the ability to stream on four devices concurrently and unlimited downloads for offline viewing. Content is able to be streamed in resolutions up to 4K Ultra HD in Dolby Vision and HDR10, with Dolby Atmos sound on supported devices. Legacy content is available in English, Spanish, French, and Dutch, while Disney+ originals features additional language options.
Launch
Disney+ is rolling out worldwide via a staggered rollout plan. It launched first in the United States, Canada, and the Netherlands on November 13, 2019 just before 3:00 a.m. EST (UTC–5). Disney+ launched in Australia, New Zealand, and Puerto Rico on November 19, 2019, and is set to launch in the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Ireland, and "a number of other countries in Western Europe" on March 24, 2020. Disney+ is expected to launch in Eastern Europe, over the course of a year, and Latin America, over the course of three months, both starting in October 2020. In December 2019, it was announced that Canal+ would be the exclusive distributor of Disney+ in France.
Release date | Country |
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November 12, 2019 | Canada |
Netherlands | |
United States | |
November 19, 2019 | Australia |
New Zealand | |
Puerto Rico | |
March 24, 2020 | Austria |
France | |
Germany | |
Ireland | |
Italy | |
Spain | |
Switzerland | |
United Kingdom | |
Summer 2020 | Belgium |
Denmark | |
Iceland | |
Finland | |
Norway | |
Portugal | |
Sweden |
Content warnings
Like Warner Bros. has done with some content from its own studio and the pre-1986 MGM library in several home media venues, Disney has added disclaimers to older works such as Dumbo, The Jungle Book, and Peter Pan, regarding some scenes containing cultural stereotypes which some viewers may find offensive or insensitive. An additional notice is displayed for titles containing depictions of tobacco.
See also
In Spanish: Disney+ para niños