Apr 12, 2019

Everything you need to know about Disney+, including release date, price, and contents.

Thursday afternoon at Disney's Burbank lot, CEO Bob Iger opened the 2019 Investor Day by emphasizing the "evergreen" quality of The Walt Disney Company's content, which includes Disney+, Hulu (now 60% owned), ESPN+, Hotstar in India, and how it will drive its growing direct-to-consumer (DTC) business, which includes.

He was followed by Kevin Mayer, chairman of DTC and International, who said that in anticipation of its plans to enter the streaming market, Disney acquired streaming services company Bamtech in 2016 and renamed it Disney Streaming Services

Mayer stated.

Mayer also explained that Disney+, ESPN+, and Hulu will initially have to be paid for as separate contracts, but there are plans to bundle the three at a discounted price in the near future. He also confirmed that unlike Hulu and ESPN+, which have ad-supported options, Disney+ will be an ad-free service only. The service will be offered worldwide in the future. Disney also plans to expand Hulu internationally.

Disney+ is scheduled to launch in the U.S. on November 12, 2019 and will cost $6.99 per month (or $69.99 per year). The price is below Netflix's $8.99/month, but Disney+'s content is more limited and less varied than Netflix's offerings.

Disney plans to expand the service to Western Europe and Asia in fiscal year 2020 and to Eastern Europe and Latin America in fiscal year 2021.

Similar to what streaming services like Netflix already offer, Disney+ will allow users to download content and watch it offline without restrictions as long as the customer is a subscriber. The presentation featured an interface for the service similar to what consumers are accustomed to with competing services. Content is divided into five brands: Disney (animated and live action), Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and National Geographic.

Jennifer Lee, co-director of Frozen and chief creative officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios (WDAS), presented details about the Disney portion of the service. When the service launches, users will have access to a collection of 13 Walt Disney Animation Studios films that the company calls its Signature Collection. Most of these films have been previously moved in and out of the "vaults" and include classics and modern classics such as "Pinocchio," "Cinderella," "The Little Mermaid," "The Lion King," "Snow White," and more.

Recent WDAS titles like "Moana" and "Big Hero 6" will also be available through this service, but it does not appear that a complete catalog of Disney animated feature films and shorts will be available on the first day of service. However, Disney has announced that it plans to add 500 films in the first year. Hopefully, more animated feature-length films will become available through this service.

Lee also announced an unscripted series titled Into the Unknown: Making Frozen 2 will premiere on Disney+.

Pixar Chief Creative Officer Pete Docter spoke about Pixar films on Disney+: "Incredibles 2," "Coco," and "Toy Story 4" will not launch on the platform, but will be added in subsequent months. All of the studio's short films, including Bao, will be available upon launch.

Doctor also announced two original projects Pixar is producing for Disney+. The first is a 10-episode series titled Forky Asks a Question, in which one of the new characters in Toy Story 4 ponders important questions about love, time, and cheese.

Disney+ will also present a short film titled "Lamp Life" featuring Bo Peep from Toy Story. These two projects join the previously announced "Monsters at Work" series, a spin-off of the Pixar-inspired but Disney Television Animation-produced "Monsters, Inc. Similar to the platform's Disney section, there will be craft-centric, unscripted content focusing on the behind-the-scenes work of Pixar's animators and other creative workers.

Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige revealed that the studio is working on its first animated series, which will debut exclusively on Disney+. Based on the comic book series, "What If" will retell the stories of popular superheroes from the MCU. There will also be live-action series on Falcon and The Winter Soldier, which will bring these supporting characters into the limelight. Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan are set to reprise their roles. Feige also noted that Disney+ will produce two unscripted series from behind-the-scenes material gathered during the production of the Marvel live-action films. The programs are titled "Marvel's 616" and "Marvel's Hero Project."

In addition to a photorealistic retelling of "The Lion King," Jon Favreau is also working on an original Star Wars series titled "The Mandalorian," which will be available on the first day of service. Few details about the Lucasfilm property were revealed, perhaps because Disney's Star Wars festival is currently being held in Chicago.

Other announcements:

Given the recent Fox merger, the most notable announcement was that the first 30 seasons of Fox's The Simpsons will be available at the launch of Disney+. The announcement was made in an animated clip featuring the Simpsons family wearing Mickey ears and standing next to statues of Darth Vader and Bog Iger. Near the end of the clip, Dumbo falls from the sky and Maggie flies with Thinker Bell wings.

Welcome to the family, @TheSimpsons.#DisneyPlus pic.twitter.com/OYAN1ziGsy

- Disney (@Disney) April 11, 2019

Interestingly, the theatrical distribution of the feature One point that was repeated every time it was mentioned is that they will follow the traditional home entertainment window before landing them on Disney+. That is, the physical media business - dvds and Blu-ray - has not yet disappeared, despite the illusion that everything will be permanently available on the platform.