Students anticipate release of Disney+ streaming service

By RILEY RANDALL

Staff Writer

TV and movie streaming platforms are among the most popular forms of entertainment sought by college students, and now the House of Mouse is stepping up to the plate to take their swing at the market.

On Nov. 12, Disney is launching their first ever streaming service, known simply as Disney+. The service is looking to steal market share from entertainment mainstays like Netflix, Amazon and even their own subsidiary, Hulu.

Disney+ will cost $6.99 per month, which is $2.00 cheaper than Netflix’s current cheapest plan. If you decide to pay for the service for a year upfront, Disney will charge $69.99, dropping the average monthly cost to just $5.83. If you also want Hulu and ESPN+, Disney+ will provide a discounted bundle for $12.99 per month, which is $5 cheaper than purchasing all three separately.

Subscribers are given access to 4K streaming, unlimited downloads and simultaneous streaming across four different devices at once, which Netflix only offers at its premium $15.99/month plan, with limited downloadable content.

The Disney+ library will have virtually every show and movie that the entertainment behemoth has ever produced or outright bought, including Star Wars, Marvel, National Geographic, Fox, Pixar and their own in-house projects as well.

Along with everything you may have already seen, Disney has invested heavily into their own original shows and movies exclusive to the service. Marvel fans can look forward to original shows like “Loki,” “WandaVision,” and “Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” while original Disney fans can look forward to a “High School Musical” series and a new “Lizzie McGuire” sequel series. The list of original planned content goes on.

Several students on campus are anxious for the debut of the streaming service that was originally announced in 2017. Jonathan Caicedo, a junior accounting major, is most interested in the exclusive original content and is curious to see how the service will pan out for Disney.

“I’m definitely interested to see everything Disney+ has to offer when it comes out. I personally am looking forward to the new Star Wars ‘The Mandalorian’ series. I know that they are also coming out with a couple of Marvel spin off series that seem pretty good. It seems that a lot of companies are turning to this subscription based service so it should be interesting to see if Disney is successful,” said Caicedo.

Simone Levendosky, a junior psychology major, is excited for the debut. But like many other college students, she is on the fence about forking over more money for yet another streaming service.

“I think it’s exciting that all of our childhood movies and TV shows will be in one place. I’m just conflicted on paying for another streaming service because it can get expensive for college students. If I were a die-hard Disney fan, then this would be perfect, but I’m still on the fence about it.”

Disney+ is available for preorder now and will launch in time for some Thanksgiving break binge-watching.