We clear up your doubt
Disney+ recently arrived in Spain (March 2020) as well as in other European countries, which has greatly helped us stay entertained for hours at home during these times of confinement. In general terms, it is another streaming company that offers series and films you can enjoy on your smart TV, tablet, smartphone, and any other compatible device whenever you want. What does it offer and what sets it apart from other similar services?
Less selection than Netflix, but exclusive content
Disney+ is a video streaming service similar to Netflix, Apple TV+ and Amazon Prime Video. All of them offer video-on-demand service with a library of films and TV shows that can be watched at any time.
Disney+ launches in Spain with 500 films, 300 series and 25 exclusive productions for the streaming service, and a total of about 7,000 episodes of television series and around 400 or 500 films are expected. Compared to its biggest rival, Netflix, that is not much; Netflix’s film library is also eight times larger than Disney+. If we stick to the numbers, Disney+ is on par with Hulu, Amazon Prime, CBS All Access, and HBO Go.
Despite all this, Disney+ stands as an exclusive storage space for a large part of Disney’s content. Moreover, it is the only place to watch the company’s new material, such as the Star Wars series, The Mandalorian, and upcoming Marvel Studios content, two great gems of the entertainment giant. Therefore, Disney+ is set to become a must-have for fans of Star Wars, Marvel, Disney Channel, or classic Disney cartoons.
10 million subscribers on the first day, but with problems
Is it technically superior to these other leisure service platforms? The truth is... it does not seem so. On launch day, at least, many American users experienced problems connecting to the new service. Even those who successfully logged in complained about the high number of frozen images and reported that some categories did not seem to be loaded at all, among other issues.
To this day, all these issues have been resolved. The question is, with more than 10 million subscribers on its first day in the US, could anyone have avoided all these problems? Everything is still very recent and some minor issues persist that Disney will surely fix.
In fact, for its launch in Spain, the company assured it would take measures to reduce bandwidth usage by at least 25%.
Which devices are compatible with Disney+?
- iOS
- Apple TV (tvOS)
- Google Chromecast
- Android
- Android TV
- PlayStation 4
- Roku
- Xbox One
- Some Amazon Fire TV devices
- LG smart TVs
- Samsung smart TVs
How much does it cost and what does it offer me?
In Spain, the service costs 6.99 euros per month or 69.99 euros for the annual subscription.
This includes a high-quality picture and sound experience provided by Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos respectively. Both technologies will probably only be offered for the newer original series, such as The Mandalorian.
With this service fee, users can stream content on up to four devices at the same time, make unlimited downloads on up to ten devices, enjoy personalized recommendations, and set up to seven user profiles.
The full Disney Plus catalog will include:
- All the films from Marvel: 'Iron Man', 'Iron Man 2', 'Iron Man 3', 'Captain America', 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier', 'Captain America: Civil War', 'Thor', 'Thor: The Dark World', 'Thor: Ragnarok', 'Guardians of the Galaxy', 'Guardians of the Galaxy vol.2', 'Avengers', 'Avengers: Age of Ultron', 'Avengers: Infinity War', 'Avengers: Endgame', 'Ant-Man', 'Ant-Man and the Wasp', 'Doctor Strange', 'Spider-Man: Homecoming', 'Spider-Man: Far From Home', 'The Incredible Hulk', 'Black Panther' and 'Captain Marvel'.
- All the films from Fox: 'Avatar', '500 Days of Summer', 'X-Men' saga (except 'Apocalypse', 'Dark Phoenix' and 'Logan')...
- All the films from Pixar: 'Toy Story' saga, 'Monsters, Inc.', 'Brave', 'Inside Out', 'Wall-E', 'Up', 'Cars' saga, 'The Incredibles', 'The Incredibles 2'...
- All the films from Disney: 'Hercules', 'The Little Mermaid', 'Snow White', 'Robin Hood', 'The Lion King', 'Taran and the Magic Cauldron', 'The Princess and the Frog', 'Frozen', 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame', 'Atlantis'...
- The complete Star Wars saga
- All the series from Disney: 'Star vs. the Forces of Evil', 'That's So Raven' and 'Raven Returns', 'Lizzie McGuire', 'Hannah Montana', 'Wizards of Waverly Place', 'Shake It Up', 'Good Luck Charlie', 'Kim Possible', 'Darkwing Duck', 'Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers', 'DuckTales', 'Gargoyles', 'Pepper Ann', 'Recess'...
- All the series from Marvel: 'Spider-Man', 'Iron Man' (1994), 'Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends'...
- The complete 'The Simpsons' series available
- More than 350 hours of National Geographic content
Is Disney+ worth it? Well, like everything in life, it depends on your tastes and needs.
