It May Be Time to Switch Streaming Services
Christopher Bright, Bobby Sweeney, and Ben Vastola
November 12th may have marked a drastic shift in the way consumers view streaming services. The highly anticipated Disney+ dropped, potentially transforming the world of streaming. For only $6.99 a month (nearly half the price of Netflix) members have access to nearly 500 movies and 7,500 episodes of TV. Some of them include The Mandalorian, Forky Asks A Question, The World According to Jeff Goldblum, and all 31 seasons of The Simpsons.
The timing was strategically smart. Disney+ can piggyback on the marketing for all of Disney’s big-budget films being released for the holiday season — Frozen 2 hit theaters November 22 and Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker will be released December 20. These new movies will only be available on Disney+. The service will be the only place you can stream all of Disney’s theatrically released movies starting with Captain Marvel, the first Marvel movie not on Netflix, at launch and the rest of its 2019 slate later on.
The streaming service is inviting many different types of viewers. Younger children will be attracted to all of the cartoon movies in the Disney archives that will be released over time on the streaming service. Some of these cartoons include childhood favorites like Cars, Finding Nemo, Ratatouille, and TV shows such as Gravity Falls and Phineas and Ferb. This service provides a rush of childhood nostalgia for anyone who watched these Disney classics growing up.
Disney+ also attracts many young adults who want to watch unique and exclusive Star Wars, Marvel, and Fox content. For consumers looking for a complete viewing experience, Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN can be bought for $12.99 a month, the exact same price as Netflix. Hulu plans on providing the adult-oriented side while ESPN+ brings sports entertainment for viewers.
The platform’s biggest competitor, Netflix, responded by pairing with Nickelodeon in a multi-year deal. “Nickelodeon has generated scores of characters that kids love, and we look forward to telling wholly original stories that re-imagine and expand on the worlds they inhabit,” said Melissa Cobb, Netflix vice president of original animation.
Approximately 7,000 episodes of television series and 400 to 500 movies are expected to be available on the service when it launches. Compared to Netflix, that’s not a lot. What Disney+ lacks in volume, however, it’s making up in quality: Disney+ will be the exclusive home to some of the biggest and most popular movies, shows, and franchises around. Almost every single movie in the Disney catalog will eventually be available on the service. Frozen 2, for example, will be streamable on the service next summer after its theatrical release in November. Disney+ will also house the entire film libraries of Pixar, Star Wars and its Signature Series and Disney Vault lines of classic hand-drawn animated movies.
The highly anticipated drop of Disney+ did bring some major issues. On the day of its release, Disney+ received over 10 million customers. Many of those customers experienced major technical issues that prevented them from watching any of the movies and TV shows on the website.
In addition to technical issues, many users are reporting being hacked. Many users reported that hackers were accessing their accounts, logging them out of all devices, and then changing the account’s email and password, effectively taking over the account and locking the online algorithms and combo breakers to obtain the previous owners out. Hackers are using usernames and passwords from people who reuse passwords on many different websites. However, hackers were able to access new usernames and passwords from users infected with information-stealing malware and keylogging, the action of recording (logging) the keys used on a keyboard.
Many of the original owners paid for 2-3 years of Disney+ and hackers were able to lockout customers and obtain a free Disney+ account. They are also figuring out how to monetize their illegal activities. They are selling account information and accounts for prices that range from $3-$11 on hacking forums that were put up just hours after the release. Free accounts are also being advertised on these hacking forums.
These issues could be fixed if Disney+ installed a multi-factor authentication, a simple solution that would prevent attacks relying on password reuse. The spokesperson for Disney says that if a customer notices anything suspicious they should report it to Disney’s customer service immediately. The best advice is to use unique passwords for their accounts. This will not prevent the malware from hackers’ devices from stealing passwords, but it will prevent the most common scenario of hackers gaining access to accounts just by guessing the password.
Though there are some faults while setting up a Disney+ account, the streaming service is in its early stages of development. These glitches and issues are sure to fade as the streaming service Disney+ boasts a large selection of media with something for everyone to enjoy. With a vast catalog of classic movies and TV shows, Disney+ is a streaming service to keep an eye on.
