Disney+ Arrives Later This Year, And Will be Tough Competition for Netflix and Amazon Video

It has been a long time coming, and Disney has finally confirmed that it is jumping into the video streaming wars. The Disney+ service is set to launch on 12 November and will be priced at $6.99 per month or $69.99 annually. Disney+ will compete with the established players such as Netflix, Amazon Video, Hulu, HBO Now and Showtime, to name a few. Disney will be aggressively rolling out the Disney+ service in the US first and confirms that it will be available in countries in all major regions globally by the year 2021.

The Disney+ streaming service will be available on Android and iOS, gaming consoles including Microsoft Xbox and Sony PlayStation, streaming media players as well as smart TVs. The streaming of 4K HDR video will be supported on compatible devices. An extensive list of supported devices is not available at the moment. It is expected that Disney+ will roll out with the option to download content for offline viewing as well on mobile devices—something Netflix added only recently to its mobile apps.

“Disney+ marks a bold step forward in an exciting new era for our company—one in which consumers will have a direct connection to the incredible array of creative content that is The Walt Disney Company’s hallmark. We are confident that the combination of our unrivalled storytelling, beloved brands, iconic franchises, and cutting-edge technology will make Disney+ a standout in the marketplace, and deliver significant value for consumers and shareholders alike,” says Bob Iger, chairman and chief executive officer, Disney.

The Disney+ app is expected to have five large hubs for content segregation from various franchises—Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and National Geographic.

The Disney+ service competes with the likes of Netflix and Amazon, which are priced at $8.99 per month—in Neflix’s case, the subscription tier that enables the 4K streaming is priced at $15.99 per month. Disney has already confirmed that it will have 7,500 TV show episodes and 500 movies available on the platform at launch. Perhaps, the war cry is best summarized when Disney says it is committed to investing around $1 billion towards new original content in the first year of launch, and is targeting a user base of 90 million subscribers by the end of fiscal year 2020.