Streaming Services are everywhere now. Whether it be Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, or something else entirely, many people have already discovered that streaming is the way of the future. So it’s quite astonishing that it took two money-making goliaths this long to get in the action, but it’s happening. Disney and Apple are finally joining the ever-increasing list of streaming services.
Disney made its announcement in late 2018, giving a proper name to its long-rumored streaming service. Labeling itself as Disney+, the service is slated to arrive on November 12, 2019 in America and Canada. And if you’re a big fan of any of the franchises Disney owns (which is quite a lot!), then you may be in a pretty good place if you decide to pick this thing up.
Disney owns an absurd amount of properties and is using that to its full advantage. Just looking at how many things Disney can bring to their streaming services, it’s pretty understandable why people are excited about it. If you’re a Marvel fan, you’ve probably already got it pre-ordered simply because of all the Marvel shows coming to Disney+, which will apparently be canon to the ever-expanding money-making behemoth that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or MCU for short. On top of that, several classic marvel shows from the nineties are coming to Disney+, making a way for people to experience these shows again, or even for the first time.
Star Wars fans will also have a lot to look forward to, with another season of the popular Clone Wars animated series and, the one I’m personally looking forward to the most, The Mandalorian, a series based on intergalactic Bounty Hunters. Fans of Disney alone will also be massively excited, as their library of films and cartoons will be put on the service for all to enjoy.
Now that’s all well and good for Disney, but what about Apple TV+? Well, they’ve got the upper hand in one thing: the price. At only five dollars a month compared to Disney+’s seven, or thirteen if you go for a combination package. However, the downside is there will be only nine programs, but most of them will be original content such as a post-apocalyptic show starring Jason Momoa called See.
So I guess the ultimate question of “Will either one be worth it?” boils down to your own thoughts on the matter. Personally, I’m not sure. Yeah, the Disney stuff is cool, but I’m personally not into a lot of the things they listed. It’s not that I don’t like Marvel or Star Wars, I’m just kind of tired of it. As for Apple, I appreciate that most of its programming will be original, but the downside of that is that I’m only interested in one show out of nine. I’m sure I’m not alone in this aspect, even if the show I’m interested in isn’t the one they’re intrigued by.
But here’s a quick question for you. How many Streaming Services do we need?
There’s seemingly a streaming service for everything under the sun now. There are the popular ones like Netflix and Hulu, NBC is getting one, ESPN has one, and it’s getting to the point of being ridiculous. Back when this was just getting started, there were just a few, and occasionally someone would pop up with a third. Now it seems like every company on the planet wants in on the streaming money, to the point where they say, “We have what you want, not those other losers!” and it leads to exhaustion. Every time you want to watch something you have to look up “is it on this service? No. How about this one? No. Maybe this one?”
I interviewed someone with a very similar mindset to this, Christopher Crawford, and he put it best when he said, “Streaming is stretched so thin now. You have to buy three different services if you want to watch three shows. Only those three shows, but then they lure you in with other stuff or leave you on a cliffhanger, and now you’ve got three monthly subscriptions for three, maybe four shows.”
I guess what I’m saying is, I miss rental stores.
