Disney+

The Walt Disney Company Details All-New Disney+ Streaming Service at 2019 Investor Day

Today The Walt Disney Company shared details about its upcoming streaming service, Disney+ to investors. It will be launching in the United States on November 12, 2019. The price point for this will be $6.99 monthly or $69.99 for a yearly subscription. Disney+ will offer content from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars and National Geographic when it goes live. It will be available for connected TV and mobile devices.

Disney+The event that gave the announcements about Disney+ had details shared by much of the leadership at The Walt Disney Company. This included Bob Iger, chairman and chief executive officer; Kevin Mayer, chairman, Direct-to-Consumer and International; Christine McCarthy, senior executive vice president and chief financial officer; Lowell Singer, senior vice president, Investor Relations; and Jimmy Pitaro, president, ESPN and co-chair, Disney Media Networks. Presentations also came from Michael Paull, president, Disney Streaming Services; Randy Freer, chief executive officer, Hulu; Russell Wolff, executive vice president and general manager, ESPN+; Uday Shankar, president, The Walt Disney Company Asia Pacific and chairman, Star and Disney India; Ricky Strauss, president, Content and Marketing, Disney+; and Agnes Chu, senior vice president, Content, Disney+.

“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 unrivaled 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,” Iger said.

Investors at the invent were also shown clips from multiple different projects coming out of The Walt Disney Company. To share the details about content coming to Disney+, multiple leaders were on hand from the company to give details and teasers about content coming to Disney+. Jennifer Lee, chief creative officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios; Pete Docter, chief creative officer, Pixar Animation Studios; Kathleen Kennedy, president, Lucasfilm; Kevin Feige, president, Marvel Studios; Gary Marsh, president and chief creative officer, Disney Channels Worldwide; Sean Bailey, president, Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Productions; Courteney Monroe, president, National Geographic Global Television Networks; and Jon Favreau, executive producer and writer, The Mandalorian and also The Lion King. 

In the first year of Disney+, it will release 25 original series and 10 original films, documentaries and specials. Title shared today at the event include:

From Marvel Studios:

  • The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, a live-action series with Anthony Mackie returning as Falcon and Sebastian Stan reprising his role as Winter Soldier
  • WandaVision, a live-action series with Elizabeth Olsen returning as Wanda Maximoff and Paul Bettany reprising his role as The Vision
  • Marvel’s What If…?, the first animated series from Marvel Studios and takes inspiration from the comic books of the same name. Each episode will explore a pivotal moment from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and turn it on its head, leading the audience into uncharted territory.

From Walt Disney Animation Studios:

  • Into the Unknown: Making Frozen 2, a documentary series showing the hard work and imagination that go into making one of the most highly anticipated Walt Disney Animation Studios features of all time

From Pixar Animation Studios:

  • Toy Story-based projects Forky Asks a Question, an animated short series, and the short film Lamp Life

From National Geographic:

  • The World According to Jeff Goldblum, a documentary series where Goldblum pulls back the curtain on a seemingly familiar object to reveal a world of astonishing connections, fascinating science and a whole lot of big ideas
  • Magic of the Animal Kingdom, a documentary series which takes viewers behind the scenes with the highly respected animal-care experts, veterinarians and biologists at Disney’s Animal Kingdom and Epcot’s SeaBase aquarium

From Disney Television Animation:

  • The Phineas and Ferb Movie (working title), an animated film featuring many of the original voice cast

Disney+ will continue to grow each coming year with more titles being added. There are multiple scripted shows in the works. This includes The Mandalorian, the world’s first scripted live-action Star Wars television series; the exclusive new season of Star Wars: The Clone WarsHigh School Musical: The Musical: The Series; the untitled Cassian Andor series starring Diego Luna and Alan Tudyk; the Marvel Studios’ series Loki starring Tom Hiddleston; Monsters at WorkDiary of a Female President; and live-action films Lady and the TrampNoelleTogoTimmy Failure and Stargirl. Nonfiction series also announced earlier this week include Be Our ChefCinema Relics: Iconic Art of the Movies (working title), Earthkeepers (working title), Encore!, the untitled Walt Disney Imagineering documentary series, Marvel’s 616Marvel’s Hero Project(Re)ConnectRogue Trip and Shop Class(working title).

Towards the end of the presentation, it was announced that all 30 seasons of The Simpsons will be presented on Disney+. Some content from Fox will also be making its way over to Disney+. This includes The Sound of MusicThe Princess Bride and Malcolm in the Middle. This will create an offering of over 7,500 television episodes and 500 films that will also include blockbusters arriving in 2019 and will continue forward.

“We’re extremely excited about our growing portfolio of direct-to-consumer offerings. As we demonstrated today, with Disney+ we will deliver extraordinary entertainment in innovative ways to audiences around the world,” said Kevin Mayer, chairman, Direct-to-Consumer and International. “We’ll continue to enhance the user experience with a constant pipeline of high-quality programming, making the service even more appealing to consumers.”

YouTube player

Along with releasing details about Disney+’s services, Disney also shared about the actual platform itself. With a demo, the company showed what it will look like when it arrives. Viewers will be able to go directly to pages that are focused on Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars and National Geographic. Viewers will also be able to make custom profiles that will accommodate their tastes based on past experiences and settings for their favorite content choices.

Once it is launched in November, Disney+ will be available on multiple different platforms in the United States. This includes smart TVs, mobile and connected devices, gaming consoles, and streaming media players. Depending on a subscribers bandwidth, content will be available at up to 4K HDR video playback levels. There will also be the option for offline viewing as well.

Disney+ will initially be launched in the United States before launching in other countries. It is “likely” that there will be a bundle package that will include Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+.

What do you think about today’s announcements regarding Disney+? Will you be subscribing when it arrives in November? Share your thoughts in the comments below!


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