I’ve been a subscriber to Disney+ since the day it launched, and I’ve never stopped. From the very beginning, a streaming service that had decades of Disney content available at a few clicks was something of a dream come true. There was a time when I opened the Disney+ app every day, but that time was quite some time ago.
Like most people, I subscribe to many streaming services, and the last couple of months have shown just what a disadvantage Disney+ has been at in recent months. It seems every streaming platform has had a major series running except Disney+. On HBO Max, you can watch Lanterns. On Apple TV, you have Ted Lasso and Slow Horses.Paramount+ has Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. On Prime Video, Reacher just wrapped its season, and the new spinoff Neagly is now there to keep those fans tuned in. These are the sorts of shows that large audiences watch and that get everybody talking on social media, and right now there just isn’t a lot to talk about on Disney+.
Disney+ Has Pulled Back Too Far On Original Content
Having access to Disney’s massive library of content was a huge draw from the streaming platform, but from the very beginning Disney knew that original content was going to be a key component of the strategy. The first episodes of The Mandalorianand The Imagineering Story both debuted on the same day Disney+ went live.
Since then, we’ve seen a significant waxing and waning of original content. Under Bob Chapek, we saw a major investment in original content on Disney+ that gave us a flood of content, including multiple shows from Marvel Studios and Lucasfilm.
To be fair, the massive increase in quantity led to a marked decrease in quality. Not all these new shows were great, and some were really rough (I’m looking at you, Secret Invasion). One of the major changes that Bob Iger instituted when he returned to the Walt Disney Company was a pullback on those initiatives. Many projects were canceled, but now, even the ones that survived are coming to an end.
It feels like we’ve gone too far in the other direction. There’s a significant lack of major live-action projects on the horizon on Disney+. We have VisionQuest and Season 3 of Percy Jackson and the Olympians to look forward to this year. Next year we have Ahsoka season 2 and Daredevil: Born Again Season 3. And then… well, it’s unclear.
We were supposed to get a second season of Wonder Man, but that got canceled. Percy Jacksonand Ahsoka might get additional seasons, but neither has been greenlit yet beyond what we’re already getting. VisionQuest is being sold as the “end of a trilogy,” and we know now that Daredevil will be done (again) after Season 3.
The issue isn’t just that there isn’t a lot on the schedule going forward, but that there’s nothing on the horizon after that. If this isn’t remedied quickly, not just with announcements of new shows but seeing them actually go into production, a lot of people may run out of reasons to keep subscribing to Disney+. All this happeningalongside a price increase certainly doesn’t help.
I’m sure we haven’t seen the end of series based on Marvel or Star Wars, and I’m sure there will be other high-profile series outside of those franchises as well, but the longer we go with nothing in production, the longer we’ll have to wait for whatever comes next to actually be released. If Disney+ doesn’t fix this issue soon, it could be years before we actually see improvement.
Disney+ Has a New “Quantity” Problem
Disney+ may have improved the quality of its original series by reducing the quantity of them, but there’s a new problem as it pertains to quantities of content, because the last two months of new content on Disney+ have been absolutely chock-a-block full of content, specifically, podcasts.
It’s absolutely insane the number of podcasts that you can now find on Disney+. Some of them are original projects from Disney studios that are exclusive to Disney+, but the vast majority are licensed projects you can find elsewhere, and are arguably easier to access in other ways.
I’m not a big podcast person, but I know a lot of people are. I’m not saying that Disney+ shouldn’t have podcasts, but when that’s all you’re adding to your streaming platform, it makes the fact that there’s nothing else there a bit more obvious.
Disney+ Could Find New Content In Old Content
A regular stream of new content is how a streaming platform keeps its audience, but that doesn’t necessarily mean original content. A streaming platform can add new material from its library that hasn’t been on the streamer before, and this is one area where Disney could really impress. If we don’t have brand new shows to add to Disney+ to break up all the podcasts, then maybe older shows are the way to go.
The Walt Disney Company is over 100 years old, and it has to be said that a lot of the company’s oldest material can’t be found on Disney+. There are hundreds of episodes of old Disney television, episodes of Disneyland or The Mickey Mouse Club that have never been added to Disney+. Most people with a Disney+ subscription have never seen those shows, so if they were added to the site, it would be “new” content for most of us.
Not every Disney+ subscriber would find that sort of material exciting. But even for those who didn’t, seeing new content of any kind added might keep them around to see what comes next.
Disney+ Needs To Give People A Reason To Subscribe
At the end of the day, Disney doesn’t need to worry too much about me cancelling my subscription. Covering the entertainment industry, and Disney specifically, has been my job for over a decade. A Disney+ account is part of the cost of doing business. But that’s not the case for a lot of people.
Whether it’s getting more of Disney’s library on Disney+, or shifting into production on new shows, Disney+ needs to do something. Quite simply, it feels like Disney is taking its subscriber base for granted. It’s not giving people a reason to remain subscribed, but must believe they will anyway.
I hope Disney+ starts reinvesting in high-profile original series because, generally speaking, I like to watch them. Disney+ needs to be willing to make that investment because, as prices of streaming platforms continue to rise year after year, more and more people are going to have to make decisions about which ones to keep. They’re going to choose to keep the ones that have the shows they like to watch and the ones that consistently have new shows they enjoy. Disney+ needs to do both.
