Recently, Disney+, Disney's (NYSE: DIS) new streaming service, unveiled the full list of films and TV shows that will be available for view. The streaming service is said to come with every Marvel, Pixar and Lucasfilm title in existence. So you can tell why Disney fans were disappointed when problems occurred Day 1. On the morning of November 12th, Disney+ launched in the US, Canada and the Netherlands. However, Disney+ was hit with technical issues that prevented the use of the streaming service.
There have been many reports and complaints on social media about the issue. Customers claimed that they were unable to log in to the service, access specific content, or use certain streaming devices. Many Disney+ users shared screenshots of the error messages they received from the streaming service. While other users called Disney customer service for help only to be left on hold for an hour or more. Using the quickly made hashtag #DisneyPlusFail, users tweeted comments that were angry, funny and annoyed about the situation. Down Detector, a problem tracking site, recorded nearly 8,300 complaints about Disney+ over a span of 15 minutes. Disney immediately offered a statement saying that the amount of users that they received exceeded their expectations. Disney went on to say that they are working quickly to resolve the current issue.
Dan Ives, a Wedbush Securities analyst, explained that this is a big step back for Disney. This problem is "a black eye coming out of the gate" Ives said, "There's no way to sugarcoat that. Disney needs to execute flawlessly and this is a step back. Right now, it's Netflix's world and everyone else is paying rent." However, even with this launch issue, Ives still believes that Disney+ will be a powerhouse in the streaming world. As the day progressed, Disney was successfully able to resolve the problem. The user-reported issues peaked at 8,441 incidents on Down Detector, but declined to 748 complaints later in the afternoon.
Even with the slow start, Disney+'s potential is still there. The platform will compete with other major TV streaming services like Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) and Amazon Prime (NASDAQ: AMZN). Disney has estimated it will need to bring in at least 60 million subscribers in order for the company's streaming service to break even.