Not long to go until Disney+ hits our shores – cue screams of excitement all over the city! It has been a long and arduous wait, but finally we’ll be able to binge our hearts out to all our favourite guilty pleasures.
When is it happening?
Disney+ launches in Singapore on 23rd February 2021, offering exciting content from six brands: Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, National Geographic, and Star. Find out all you need to prepare for the launch here; there’s no time to lose!
Priced at S$11.98 per month, or S$119.98 per year, Disney+ really doesn’t cost much at all. In fact, opt for an entire year’s subscription and you’ll essentially enjoy two months’ access for free. The best part? There’s no additional pricing for superior video quality; all subscribers can enjoy 4K HDR video on up to four concurrent devices. Including unlimited downloads that come without any expiry date!
What shows can we bookmark?
Be utterly spoilt for choice with more than 500 movies, and over 15,000 episodes of content. Delight in watching all the usual Disney classics over and over again – Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and more! Check out new hits such as Soul, as well as the live-action Lady and the Tramp.
Go all out with Marvel Studios’ Avengers, and watch both Infinity War and Endgame in an exhilarating superhero movie marathon. Star Wars fans can geek out over all 12 Star Wars movies being made available on Disney+, with the appearance of Baby Yoda in the much-acclaimed Mandalorian.
READ: Disney+ Is Finally Coming to Singapore! – Here’s What to Expect
Disney+ also keeps things fresh and exciting by rolling out a whole red carpet of new content, such as WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, or the Toy Story spin-off, Forky Asks A Question. For those enjoy blitzing through episode after episode, stay tuned for series such as How I Met Your Mother, Grey’s Anatomy, and much, much more!
That’s not all: you can even live your Broadway dreams by watching Hamilton, an immensely popular theatrical play!
The Star appeal
Out of the six brands, Star might perhaps sound the most foreign of the lot. Star is the new international markets’ replacement for Hulu, and will be fully integrated within Disney+. Star, however, appears as its own hub, essentially offering subscribers two portals for the price of one. The inclusion of Star will act to double the amount of content offered by Disney+, which will implement enhanced parental controls for parents looking to limit access to mature content.
Star will not only grant subscribers access to some of Hulu’s content, but also open the door to Disney-owned brands such as 20th Century Studios, FX, and Touchstone, among others. This will offer shows such as Lost, The X-Files, Deadpool 2, The Devil Wears Prada… just to name a few.
READ: Truth Behind Why Disney Reuses Their Animation Scenes
Disney+ vs Apple TV Plus?
Besides Netflix and Prime Video, Apple TV Plus is another contender in the field. Is it a worthy adversary, however? Sources suggest that unfortunately, it is not. Launching just weeks apart from Disney+ in 2019, Apple TV Plus is lagging behind in subscribers.
Disney+ still has less than half of Netflix’s subscriber base but it has managed to garner nearly 100 million subscribers globally – impressive for a newcomer. Apple TV Plus, on the other hand, has around 33.6 million users at end 2019. The platform projected a total of 40 million users by the end of 2020, although the actual figure remains undisclosed.
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Apple TV Plus falls behind in terms of content production, choosing not to spend so much on creating original content. Content, as the saying goes, is king and without it any platform would naturally suffer. The free Apple TV Plus annual subscriptions given to new iPhone and Macbook customers have also drawn scrutiny – not many people have expressed interest in paying for the service had it not been given free to them. In fact, a staggering 64 per cent of Apple TV Plus’ subscribers did not voluntarily pay for the service, with 29 per cent of these not planning to renew their subscription once it ends.
Think of it as Disney+ and Apple TV Plus standing side by side on two diving boards situated 15 metres above a pool – with Disney+ jumping off the board readily, and Apple TV Plus being the shy one that hovers on the edge of the board. Such risk-taking and courage has definitely paid off for Disney+, and it shows!
Excuse us while we start the countdown for Disney+’s arrival. Ready, set, stream; 23 February just can’t come fast enough!
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