Disney Plus battles Netflix for top streaming service

A Disney tour back to childhood memories through the leading entertainment app. Photo by Jeffrey Baptiste

Disney Plus has officially launched. Millions of subscribers have signed on to the app, which offers nearly every classic Disney movie ever made.

Disney Plus is designed to stream Pixar adventures, Marvel sagas, Star Wars and more iconic collections.

“I decided to sign up for the 7-day free trial,” freshman criminal justice major Greg Turner said. “I was excited to have access to so much of my favorite childhood shows.”

Disney Plus is convenient because, like most of its competitors, members can access content on handheld devices and stream on the go. Another helpful feature is there are no limits to downloads.

Disney is apparently excited that the launch is doing extremely well and has had such a positive reaction.

“I told my friends about it and we spent an entire weekend watching classics,” sophomore computer science major Jessica Riley said. “I find it pretty amazing and the price is just as low as Netflix.”

Riley was having technical trouble with the app when it launched, which the company worked to resolve. The level of interaction caused the site to crash and she was not able to log onto anything.  She says getting ahold of customer service was a hassle.

The company has continued to make updates and improvements for subscribers. All new episodes of Disney originals have been added since initially launching.

“I am a big Marvel fan,” freshman biology major Zachary Nelson said. “Disney added a ton of Marvel clips that I am excited to catch up on.”

Nelson also signed up for the free trail promotion. He is pleased with the service but says it could be better if there was a feature to track movie progress. He noticed that the app does not save at the point a video has ended and that is up to the viewer to remember where they stopped watching.

Disney Plus has become the biggest challenge for Netflix. The streaming service is also ad-free and has piqued the interest of a similar audience.

“I believe Netflix has more to offer,” English major Victoria Harris said. “Once you watch all the content there will be no use for the subscription.”

Harris says that the hype will soon die out and the launch of something new will grab everyone’s attention. She says its an amazing launch for kids, but most adults have seen most of the Disney movies.

The number of subscribers for Disney Plus is projected to keep rising in 2020. Taking it one day at a time Disney will unload new content for December.