by The Cowl Editor on November 21, 2019
Arts & Entertainment
by: Julia Vaccarella ’20 A&E Staff
With much anticipation, Disney released its coveted subscription service, Disney+ on Nov. 12. The streaming platform has already attracted many customers, reaching over 10 million subscribers within its first day available. Although the service has yet to add an extensive amount of original content, audiences are perfectly fine with that. In fact, much of the praise for Disney+ thus far has been rooted in the nostalgia for old movies and television shows.
Disney+ is not the only streaming service that is currently doing this, though. For example, Netflix recently added the former Nickelodeon series Victorious to its platform. Even viewers who watched the show while it was on-air rewatched the episodes. A similar dynamic currently exists with Disney+, which offers an array of older shows like Hannah Montana and Wizards of Waverly Place, among many others like The Simpsons.
According to an article published by CNBC, many of Disney’s entertainment options contain “massive, passionate fan bases that will sign up for Disney+ to watch hours of content. For some, it’s a chance to relive their childhoods and for others it’s a chance to share those childhood favorites with their own children.”
Options for subscribers of Disney+ are certainly not limited. In addition to Disney Channel shows, the service includes a wide selection of movies as well as documentaries presented by National Geographic. With this in mind, another appeal is that Disney+ offers something for individuals of all ages and interests. One of the many reasons that Disney is able to provide such a diverse selection of entertainment options is that the media conglomerate is comprised of multiple franchises.
Beyond its original films, the service also includes Disney Channel original movies like High School Musical. Disney also owns the rights to Marvel and the Star Wars franchise, which are also included in Disney+. Josh Spiegel of The Washington Post writes, “This concentration of cultural capital has given Disney enormous influence. And whatever original content it has to offer, the real pitch for Disney Plus is that the service offers a streaming version of your childhood.”
Looking ahead, Disney is one of many other companies jumping into the market of subscription streaming services. The creators of Disney+ are well-aware of this, and are guided by the company’s strategic move to debut the service as quickly as they possibly could. Furthermore, the cost of Disney+ is significantly lower than many other popular streaming options that are currently being offered to consumers; this is projected to attract further audiences to the service.
As time goes on, Disney will likely add more original content to the platform, but for the short-term it will be interesting to see how Disney+ fares operating largely on throwbacks. For example, there has been much discussion recently about the promise of a Lizzie Maguire reprisal. In doing so, Disney+ plans to build upon much of its established content with series reboots, in addition to completely new material.